CHAPTER 7 the Fint Journeys Across the Catibbean Sea Were Made By

CHAPTER 7 few chosen ground operaton. Those who have failed to book can take rlleir chances and get a cheaper deal with tati-drivers. The most popular ports of call are the ones with the hcst duty-free shopping and casinos. The shops arc ice-cold and could be on Fifth avenue: the gifts, under glass, arc much the same whether in Ocho Rios oI Antigua - jewellery, perfumes, china iigmincs of pastel-coloured cottages, milk maids or puppies. Each destination, however, is in conlpetition with the next fo provide a shoppen’ parad&. St Kim, for suample, with its modest duty-free mall in Basseterre, must try to conlpere with St Marten, its flashy Americanized neighbour, stiff with shops and casinos. ‘We would like to see a greater turnover so we are The fint journeys across the Catibbean Sea were made by Amerindian upgrading our duty-free outlets,’ says Hilary Wattlry, the marketing canoeists who settled the island chains, paddling north from the river manager for St Kim Division of Tourism. Or Grenada, where there is systems of the Orinoco and the Amazon. Hundreds of years later the lit& to buy and only the charm of% George’s to attract the tourists. ‘We Spanish explorers arrived, and when other European powers joined the need more and fancier shopping. There arc not enough attractions and fight for control of the Caribbean it was the sea, not the land, which saw shops for the cruise peoplr,’ says Andrew Bierzynski, a charter boat their greatest battles. Then the sea became an economic highway: for operaror. slavm, traders, buccaneers and iishermen; or it became a passageway for Armed with leaflets on shops recommmded by the cruise ships, escaped slaves, indentured labourers and settlers, and later still a watery cruis~rz know which are the best and cheapest destinations. Not St !Sitts flight path for emigrants and boat people. or Grenada, for sure, and even Antigua is not a star attraction. A young These shipping channels (except for those traditionally used by Caribs couple in Antigua’s duty-free Hex&age Quay are not planning to spend and fishermen) were linked with the economic and political power blocs nmcb money there. They arc saving it for St Thomas, in the US Virgin of Europe and Noah America rather than with each other, for each Islands. ‘We might as well go back on board and grt some brdfm.’ harbour was a juncture of imperial arrival and departure. Caribbean ports They have heard that shopping is better in St Thomas. are still working places. Container ships arrive with imports from Hy afternoon, the passengers with their purchases drift back to the ship tableware to tracton, most from the USA, and they depart with bananas to cat (food is included in the cruise price) or to join those who have from Martinique or St Vincent for Europe. Now, however, by far the newr left (preferring to glimpse the island from the rails). The last biggest vessels in port are cruise ships, also from the USA, on pleasure ~omewl~~t drunken stragglers, with T-shirts reading ‘Drink Till You journeys that no longer pay attention to those old colonial lines. ’ Si~lk’, are scooped up the gangway. Soon, the quayside will be almost Criss-crossing the Caribbean Sea, largely out of Miami, these great empty, as shopkeepers count their takings and rati-dtiveri give up for the white whales come and go quicker than the banana boats loading up, day. Only beggars and scavenging dogs remain. The ship disappears, alongside them. There is time though for seven hours or so on land, from lights twinkling, on its way to another sunset at sea. the morning arrival to departare in late afternoon. Down the gangway come the cruise-ship passengers, straight into a purpose-built, duty-free shopping mall, or into streets strung out with tourist shops. Just like the last port of call, most terminals have pizza Thr Caribbean cruise business is cnonnous, and still getting bigger. ‘The untapped potential in the Caribbean - where we’re putting more houses, ice cream padours, souvenir shops, perhaps a casino or two Andy tonnage over the next several years - is vast,’ claims Julie Benson of hoardings with familiar tramnational names: Dollar Rent a Car’ Princess Lines, a subsidiary of P&O Cruisrs.’ The Caribbean already has Colombia Diamonds, Bmetton, Gucci and Little Switzerland. There is’ “UP than half of the world capacity of cruise ‘bed days’, and its share is time to fit in shopping, an island tour or either a trip to a beach or KI the Gmwing. In the Caribbean itself, where there were mox than six million cruise line’s private island. Ranks of minibuses line up to whisk them off ‘bed d.dys .’ in 1993, it is expanding faster than land-based tourism. on their pre-booked, prepaid fours arranged by the cruise lines with a Cruising has grown from an &mated 900,850 passengers in lY83 to 2.3 156 157 - .%UNG INi0 THE .%NSET: THE CRUISE-SH IP INDUSTRY million in 1993 (these figures include the Mexican east coast and am St Kitts and Nevis, Aruba and Cura~ao.8 Even Haiti, abandoned by the based on the number of bed days divided by 6.9, the average number of cruise-ship industry in 1993 when sanctions against its military regime days in a cruise).’ It is expected to almost double again by the year 2OCQ wre announced, was back on the itinerary by 1995. In ten selected Caribbean ports, cruise-ship arrivals trebled between 1982 and 1992, while land-based atrivals for the same destinations doubled.’ Rocking the Boat The industry rims at a remarkable capacity of more than 90 per cent, yet while the cruise lines steam ahead, unloading more and more far higher than land-based tourism, and both the number of ships and passages off bigger and more luxurious ships on to the docksides of their overall size are increasing. At least 28 new ships are due to be s&l Caribbean states, fundamental questions have begun to be asked delivered to the cruise companies by 1998; most are destined for the, about the benefits of the cruise-ship industry to the Caribbean and its Caribbean. The biggest companies, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line people, and its long-term effect on the region’s own land-based tourism. (RCCL), Carnival Cruise, Holland America and Princess, are leading the This became painfully clear in a dispute between the Catibbean way. RCCL has three ships on order, all for more than 1,800 passeugen; Comnunity (Caricom) and the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association Princess is to spend almost USBl billion on three ships; while the biggest (FCCA), which represents the 14 major cruise lines. The row, over line, Carnival, was due to add 11 ships to its fleet by 1996. Disney Cot-, cruise passenger head tax, came to a head in 1993 when the FCCA poration is also entering the cruise market, with its first ship due to sail in resigned, albeit briefly, from the Caribbean Toutism Organization 1999. Even the smaller companies are increasing their fleets, building (CTO). The story went as follows: vessels for 300 or so passengers for the luxury market or for the even Departure taxes for both airline and cruise passengers have t&i- more select sail-ship market.’ tionally been set by individual governments. The tax is one way in which Both Carnival and Pdncess have on order the two biggest liners ever, the tourist industry contributes to the eltpenses involved in providing T&q at 100,000 tonnes and Grand l’riruess at 105,000 tonnes respect. appropriate port or airport facilities. In the case of the cruise tzx, this has ively. Cam&l is spending US$400 million on T#any which is beirq varied from nothing (St Marten) to US$2 (Dominica) to USSl5 built in Italy and is due for delivery in late 1996. Like the new Princes (Bahamas). Inter-country rivalry and what are considered to be Line ship, it will be too large to go through the Panama Canal and is thu differences in the quality of facilities offered to cruise ships by each confined to the Caribbeani destination were said to explain the discrepancy. Seventy-seven cruise ships with passenger capacities averaging man However, in January 1992 the Organization of Eastern Caribbean than 1,000 each were working the Caribbean mutes in 1993. Neal: States (OECS) agreed to adopt a standard head tax of US$lO to take one-third (496) of the cruises sailed out of Miami; 463 began from tht effect in October of that year. However, this decision was superseded important airline hub of San Juan, Puerto Rico, while 178 cruise when Caricom, the wider regional organization, came up with another originated in Port Everglades, Florida. Of non-American bases, 9: plan to adopt a uuified tax It was to be set at US85 in April 1994, to be cruises began in Aruba, 37 in Antigua, 21 in Playa de Ponce, Puert~ raised to US87.5 in October that year and to US$lO by 1995.* Rico, and 17 in Fort de France, Martinique. Other ports, such as those o For the Caribbean this was a major step forward, since earlier Barbados and Belize, notched up a mere handful.’ ,3 discussions about increasing the head tax had taken place only bilaterally, The ships steam on a variety of routes, depending on the point o wing the cruise operators an in-built advantage. They could play one departure or the length of the cruise.

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