The Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with Discover Dominica Authority (DDA), held a cruise service provider consultation on September 21 – 22, 2023, at the Goodwill Parish Hall. The two-day consultation entailed a series of information sessions including presentations on tourism certification, the state of the cruise industry, basic first-aid essentials, cashless transactions, MSME lines of credit, customer service and deportment.
The consultation was attended by tourism stakeholders including taxi operators taxi drivers, tour operators, craft & souvenir vendors, and hair braiders. Service providers were also given the opportunity for communication exchanges with the Minister for Tourism at the event’s open dialogue session.
Annual discussions are held with tourism sub-sectors in retrospection of the past cruise season for improvement plans to be undertaken for the successive season. Improvement plans include site enhancement, cruise transportation service, customer service and increasing cruise offerings among others.
May 2, 2023, marked the end of the 2022/2023 cruise season. It is anticipated that Dominica will receive over 240 cruise calls with the cruise passenger count totaling to over 300,000 for the upcoming 2023/2024 cruise season. The Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with the DDA, continues its thrust to increase the destination’s visibility in the cruise marketplace with an aim of increasing cruise visitor arrivals.
