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Alexis Monteith/ Contributor

The Ocho Rios tourism economy continues to be impacted by the damage sustained to the cruise terminal on February 6 this year, when high winds occasioned by a freak storm slammed the Carnival Magic cruise ship into the pier at which it was docked.

With the Ocho Rios pier out of operation for nearly three months since the incident, some cruise ships have been accommodated at the nearby Reynolds Pier while others were diverted to Falmouth and Montego Bay in western Jamaica.

According to Prem Mahtani, owner of Jewels & Time, an independent retail store in Ocho Rios specialising in duty-free jewellery and watches, 21 scheduled cruise ship calls were lost between the incident on February 6 and the end of April due to the shutting down of the Ocho Rios pier.

Mahtani estimates the loss in revenue to the town’s economy at nearly US$6 million as at the end of April, noting that these ships would have been carrying a combined 81,464 passengers.

The businessman warns that the loss of certain cruise ships that he refers to as “full-year” ships or “anchor” ships which visit throughout the year, including the low tourism season, could wreak more damage to the town’s economy.

“So we have three of these ships,” Mahtani explained. “We have the MSC Seascape, we have the Carnival Horizon and we have the Carnival Sunrise. Essentially what has happened is that when this incident occurred, I said to the Port Authority almost immediately, ‘Hey, guys, make sure you take care of our anchor ships first and make sure these guys are safe.’ Because when we come to summer and we lose our seasonal ships, if we haven’t taken care of our full-year ships, then we’ll have nothing through the summer, so you want to protect those guys first.”

“Unfortunately, the way things unfolded and the speed at which they unfolded, we lost two of those ships to Falmouth ⸺ the MSC Seascape and the Carnival Horizon,” he continued.

“Now, once you lose those things, then it is really difficult to bring them back because you have to do a lot of work to bring them back. You lose them very quickly. So that is what we have been working on, trying to get those guys back here. Port Authority has been at the forefront of that.”

Mahtani disclosed that at a meeting between stakeholders and Port Authority this week, there was good news regarding salvaging the visits of the “anchor ships” this summer.

“The Carnival Horizon will be back on Tuesday next week,” the businessman revealed. “MSC ships are much bigger. So that’s going to require some more work. Port Authority is working with MSC to determine what changes need to be made at Reynolds to accommodate the MSC Seascape.”

Mahtani stressed the importance of these anchor ships not only for maintaining a regular schedule but also for planning and marketing purposes. Without them, the port and town will face significant challenges in the low summer season.

Craft markets suffering

One section of the tourism economy that has been particularly hard-hit is the craft industry.

“All five craft markets in Ocho Rios have been extremely devastated by what transpired,” related Devon Mitchell, president of the Ocho Rios Craft Council.

He added that due to a number of issues plaguing the market, the vendors were already suffering economically before the incident.

“We are very much aware of the fact that [the craft markets] were somewhat devastated before what transpired on the ship pier,” Mitchell said. “But now it has just become worse than what it was because of what happened.”

The Ocho Rios Craft Council president explained that previously the five craft markets had the chance to access the Ocho Rios pier whenever a vessel was in harbour, allowing around 30 individuals from each market to go there on a rotating basis. However, this is no longer possible due to the shutting down of the pier since the accident, while the Reynolds pier at which some ships are now docking, is unable to accommodate that number.

“The Reynolds Pier accommodates eight of us presently from each market, which is just a slap on the wrist,” Mitchell said.

“Because when you have a market with over 300 vendors inside of the craft market, and that is just one craft market, and then you have another market with 280 vendors. When you go to Dunns River you have another 200 vendors. When you go to Pineapple Craft Market you have over 250 vendors, you understand? So when you can only accommodate eight vendors each time on a rotation basis, it doesn’t do much for the craft industry here in Ocho Rios.”

Mitchell informed that in the meeting with Port Authority this week he expressed the need for shuttles to bring cruise passengers to the craft markets to ameliorate the economic challenges now being faced by the vendors.

Port authority announces repairs

According to Mahtani, the Port Authority indicated that repairs to the pier should be completed by June of 2025. This means that Ocho Rios will face another winter season with only the Reynolds Pier available. The return of the anchor ships would ease that situation but having only one pier in the town presents scheduling problems that would need to be addressed.

Solutions to these pressing concerns for the summer and beyond must be found in order to ease the damage to the economy that has been sustained so far.

In an interview with Our Today, before the meeting that took place with Port Authority this week, founder and managing director of the Mystic Mountain tourist attraction in Ocho Rios, Mike Drakulich, shed some light on the effect the ongoing cruise port dilemma will continue to have on different sections of the town’s tourism economy if solutions are not realised.

“The loss of the ships over the next six to seven months lamentably will have a dreadful impact on the merchant community and taxi operators and vendors,” Drakulich said. “It won’t be as bad for major attractions who may be able to garner 40 per cent of their lost business from rescheduled ships to dock in Falmouth and Montego Bay, but with numbers that we drastically reduced because the tour will cost more for those people and take more time and be more expensive to operate. Thus, previous projected revenue earnings will be severely impacted.”

Wouter Tjeertes, co-founder of Pure Chocolate Company, manufacturers of artisanal Jamaican chocolate bars, operates a shop and chocolate studio at the Island Village shopping centre in Ocho Rios.

“It definitely impacts our sales and they have dropped significantly,” Tjeertes disclosed, commenting on the cruise ship crisis. “We are really hoping that the combined effort of the Port Authority and the Ocho Rios municipality will get this thing going quickly again. Because truth be told our shop is in troubled waters.”

After the recent meeting with the Port Authority, Mahtani was optimistic about the evolving strategies to maximise cruise ship calls in the coming months. He believes, however, that Ocho Rios must implement oversight which is crucial to staying on track with these plans and preventing any delays.

“We need to do this now, as a little town, to establish some oversight so that we can stay on Port Authority to make sure that we don’t sleep on that schedule,” he insisted.

This week, Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett announced that the Port Authority is considering alternatives to either repair the cruise ship berth or construct a new one capable of hosting two large vessels.

Before this revelation was made, Mystic Mountain founder, Mike Drakulich, had stressed to Our Today that the Government must contemplate building a bigger port while planning repairs to the Ocho Rios pier. He expressed this opinion in response to being asked if Ocho Rios should have a disaster plan to address situations like the current cruise ship crisis in the future.

“The biggest disaster would be that we don’t have the facilities to berth the emerging big cruise ships that are coming on stream worldwide,” Drakulich emphasised. “And we have to make a decision about the cruise shipping future of Ocho Rios, which is to build it a 300 metre pier capable of docking two mega liners at the same time and hope they come despite the distance that they would have to travel without another port to stop at like Cayman, which has no cruise ship pier and passed a referendum to prevent one from being built, as unbelievable as that is.”

Drakulich explained that the long distances these ships would traverse to Jamaica, coupled with the speeds required and the associated carbon emissions penalties, severely impact the feasibility of such voyages. This situation contrasts sharply with the development of cruise line destinations in the Bahamas, where short travel distances between controlled ports are the norm.

While he believes in building a bigger port he acknowledges that the decision to expand the port would not be an easy one because while some experts believe that Jamaica’s allure as a top tourist destination will continue to attract visitors, they question whether tourists will be willing to pay extra for cruise travel to the island. However, others argue that the novelty of cruise ship destinations like the Bahamas will fade, leading travellers to seek out new destinations like Jamaica with rich cultural and tourism offerings.

Drakulich also addressed the logistical challenges of expanding the port.

“The issue with building a new cruise ship pier is first [the Reynolds pier] would have to be fixed to accommodate the construction over the other side of the harbour and a lot more space there needs to be created at the docking area itself to accommodate increased flow of people,” Drakulic said. “If we’re going to bite the bullet we better bite it sooner than later but the decision has to be made because it’s a gamble to spend that kind of money on a new cruise facility with no guarantee that cruise ships will be coming there, yet if you don’t build it you know they won’t come, so it’s a catch 22 type of thing.”

“Hope the business community and PAJ (Port Authority of Jamaica) and JBM (Jamaica Bauxite Mining Company – owners of Reynolds Pier) and Tourist Board and all the people involved with trying to build our cruise tourism economy can get together and agree on a plan,” he added.

In the meantime, stakeholders in Ocho Rios will be hoping that the Port Authority’s efforts to address the current crisis will be executed on schedule. The diversion of ships to other Jamaican ports meant that the country as a whole was able to salvage its tourism earnings from these vessels following the accident, but Ocho Rios was not so lucky.