By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Tuesday 17th July 2018)- Greeted by the Chief Executive Officer of the St.Kitts Tourism Authority Raquel Brown, a young couple Mallory Kohn and Jared Lehman from Philadelphia in the US, yesterday (16th July), were greeted with some exciting news of being the millionth marker of cruise ship passengers to St.Kitts.
A rain of confetti and a gift basket filled with local goodies such as sugar cake and coconut fudge officially added to the congratulatory atmosphere.

That moment was captured minutes after the pair had disembarked the Freedom of the Seas docked at Port Zante in Basseterre whereby the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the St.Kitts Tourism Authority for the occasion of celebrating the destination welcoming of 1 Million Cruise Ship Passengers which included live steelpan music provided by the CHS Pantastics.

Shortly after posing for photos and mingling with other officials including the Minister of Tourism Lindsay Grant and Vice President of Government Relations Royal Caribbean cruises for Latin America and the Caribbean Federico González-Denton, the couple was whisked away for their complimentary island tour which included stops at the Fairview Great House, Caribelle Batik Brimstone Hill and Carambola Beach Club.

Via popular social media network Facebook that day, Lehman shared a post from the Faces of St.Kitts Tourism-tagging his girlfriend- with the caption “The millionth cruisers to St.Kitts this cruise season. Omg what an experience today was!!! The hospitality we received all day long was amazing!”

At a press briefing held ahead of Monday’s meet and greet moment, González-Denton, who is also a member of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), shared his excitement.

“We are very excited and honoured to celebrate with St.Kitts and the people of St.Kitts the one millionth cruise passengers’ arrival. I think the work that has been done over the years to get to this point has been amazing so we wanted to part of this huge celebration. We in royal Caribbean we are happy that we have reached this milestone…”

Commenting on his observation of the growth of the local industry, he said: “I remember coming to royal Caribbean ten years ago and the numbers were like very very low and the product was not that sophisticated as it is now so over the last 10 years what the people and the government of St.Kitts and the public sector and private sector has done with St.Kitts as a destination is as a destination has been basically amazing. Now the ratings is probably one of the highest in the region if not the highest. The guests’ satisfaction is at incredible levels. I think our guests love St.Kitts, the environment to do business in St.Kitts has been very open to the cruise line. I think the government understands the cruise industry so I only hope that this trend will continue over the next few years but to get here the work has been absolutely amazing.”

Meanwhile, Grant had this to say: “Today we are celebrating the millionth passenger in any given cruise year. This is really big for us. It now puts up in the position as marked key port of the 35 jurisdictions of the FCCA. That’s fantastic news for us. We have done it ahead of much larger destinations and I think it’s testament to the hard work of the St.Kitts and Nevis public, the taxi drivers, aloe vendors, the craftsmen, the work of the ministry and the authority. Today is a proud moment; we’ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time and it shows the capacity of St.Kitts and Nevis to produce at the highest level.”

“The millionth passenger is great because it gives us the status of the marked key port and going forward we want to make sure that our customer service is at its best. Bringing a million passengers here is not really what we want in terms of just saying we have a million passengers, we want to make sure that when the visitors come they get an experience like no other and so we are happy to be here today,” he added.

Grant informed that for this year alone the island has received from Royal Caribbean 102 ships whilst noting “Our percentage has gone up some 30 per cent for this year alone.”

The Tourism Minister also spoke about the construction of a second pier as also being “good news for us because it means that St. Kitts at any given time can hold three of the largest ships in the world at one time.”

Following the millionth passenger highlight, members of the media along with government minister and other dignitaries were treated to a brief ceremony tour, a show at the Arcadia Theatre and buffet lunch on board the Freedom of the Seas.

Among those present were Governor General Sir Tapley Seaton; Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris; Deputy Prime Minister Shawn Richards; Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism Carlene Henry-Morton and Police Commissioner Ian Queeley.