According to the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association-commissioned survey, Jamaica earned US$197.85 million from cruise tourism spend from October 2023 to April 2024.

The survey, titled ‘Economic Contributions of Cruise Tourism to the Destination Economies’, was completed by New Jersey-based Business Research & Economic Advisors.

With about 1,195,900 cruise tourists stepping on Jamaica’s shores, total passenger spending amounted to US$140 million. Cruise passengers doled out $117.09 on average.

Passengers stayed on average four hours. Sixty-two per cent of those passengers booked tours through the cruise line, a travel agent or onshore.

“Shore excursions, clothing and watches and jewellery account for 71 per cent of cruise passenger
expenditures in Jamaica,” the report stated.

Jamaica saw 72.7 per cent in first-time visitors from cruise lines.

At the same time, crew members for the cruise lines spending totalled $8.1 million. There were 166,800 crew members who spent US$48.48 on average.

Cruise lines paid out US$49.72 million for local goods and services, the fifth-highest among cruise line expenditures in the region.

“Jamaica benefited from being a homeporting destination,” the report explained, as 5 per cent of passengers who embarked on their cruise from Jamaica reported spending at least one night in the island.

“Jamaica had the fourth-highest number of direct jobs supported. Jamaica’s 198 million in direct expenditures helped support 3,920 jobs paying in excess of $36.0 million in wages. One direct job was supported for every $50,000 in direct cruise tourism expenditures. The $36 million in wages represents approximately 18 percent of the direct spending,” another section outlined.

For the period, the country had 6,322 people employed in the local cruise tourism industry, earning US$53.26 million.

For the survey, a total of 1,672 people were questioned – 1,917 passengers and 245 crew members.

Like other Caribbean destinations, Jamaica’s cruise tourism receipts for the period exceeded the pre-COVID period 2017/18, as the overall spend across the region was up 2. 8 per cent in comparison.

Only 83 per cent of passengers and 30 per cent of crew members disembarked from cruise ships from October 2023 to April 2024, compared with 85 per cent of passengers and 39 per cent of crew members back in the comparable 2017/2018 period.

On February 6 this year, high winds occasioned by a freak storm slammed the Carnival Magic cruise ship into the Ocho Rios pier, where it was docked, causing some damage.

After the incident, the Ocho Rios pier was out of operation for nearly three months. As a result, cruise ships were accommodated at the nearby Reynolds Pier or diverted to Falmouth and Montego Bay in western Jamaica.