From Caribbean News Now

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (CUOPM) — Over one million cruise ship passengers are expected to visit St Kitts’ Port Zante, for the first time in history.

“St Kitts continues to grow its cruise tourism sector at an impressive rate, with a projected rise in cruise passenger arrivals for the 2014/2015 season to more than one million for the first time in the island’s history,” a news release from the St Kitts Tourism Authority said on Tuesday.

It said this represents a 31.5% increase over the 2013/2014 season and a total growth over the past eight years of more than 500%.

“The fact that we will be welcoming this record number of cruise passengers to St Kitts is a testament to the high quality of our tourism infrastructure and to the partnerships that our destination has forged with industry stakeholders,” said minister of tourism and international transport, Senator Ricky Skerritt.

He said the island’s performance must be examined against the backdrop of the development of a wealth of onshore activities based on its nature, rich history, and friendly people who help provide an authentic Caribbean experience for all visitors.

This season’s growth is partly because the island will receive six calls from the Royal Caribbean International’s Quantum of the Seas, in its inaugural 2014/2015 season.

St Kitts also sees the return of Disney Cruise Line for the first time since 2009, with the Disney Magic scheduled to make a total of four port calls to the island in 2014/2015.

Inaugural calls are also being made in 2014/2015 by Oceania Cruises’ Insignia and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Gem and Norwegian Pearl, which together will make 17 calls.

In addition to increasing passenger arrivals from traditional ports of origin of the US and UK, the geographic markets from which the cruise passengers originate have also been expanding to include Germany, Italy, France and Spain.

The cruise lines that are scheduled to make calls to St Kitts in the 2014/2015 cruise ship season include Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Holland America, Norwegian, Princess, P & O, Cunard, Oceania, Seabourn, Aida, Silver Sea, Windstar, Thompson and TUI Cruises.

IMAGE: Cruise ships at Port Zante, St Kitts

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