By Garwin Davis, Assistant News Editor
The gleaming white 'Voyager of the Seas' is one of the mega-tonne luxury cruise liners that make regular stops at the Ocho Rios Cruise Ship Pier. In the year 2000, the expenditure of cruise-passengers in the Caribbean was said to be around US$1.4 billion. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
THERE COULD be a full-scale pull-out of cruise vessels from Jamaica, if new security measures are not put in place immediately at the island's cruise shipping ports, Tourism Minister Aloun Assamba warned yesterday.
Her warning came following news that taxi operators in Ocho Rios, providers of ground transportation at the cruise ship pier, were planning to protest against the implementation of new security measures which take effect today.
The changes will see the removal of all taxis parked at the gate of the pier to a holding area nearly one mile away. They are to be summoned to the facility by radio for the picking up and dropping off of visitors.
"If we don't do this, we will lose the ships," the Tourism Minister said in an interview with The Gleaner yesterday. "For the first time ever Jamaica stands to receive over a million cruise passengers. The next three months alone will see over 120 ships, up from the 80 recorded during the same period last year. This represents billions of dollars in revenue for the island. All this we stand to lose if the security measures are not put in place."
The changes, Mrs. Assamba said, were being demanded by the International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL), the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the United States Coast Guard.
"After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States everything has changed," she added. "Any vessel that calls on a port that is deemed unsafe by the United States government will be forbidden from entering a US port for a period of six months. The cruise ships will not be taking any risk if the drivers are not willing to be relocated from the pier we will lose the ships it is as simple as that."
The cruise industry ranks a close second to the hotel sector in terms of foreign exchange earnings for the country. On an annual basis, cruise shipping rakes in close to $5 billion in revenue. The breakdown comes in the form of head tax charges, water, ground transportation fees, tours, shopping and attractions.
Taxi operators, meanwhile, from the JUTA and Maxi Associations, the two main carriers responsible for transportation at the port, are not moved by the explanation given by the authorities regarding the planned relocation.
"I would have to hear this from the American authorities themselves before I believe," said Andrew Thomas, taxi driver. "At present, there are water sport operators with boats docked close to the pier yet there are no signs that they will be, or have been asked to leave. These boats are owned by powerful people so nobody dares touch them. What are we saying, the security measures do not apply to them?"
Rodney Greenland, another operator agreed. "We will not be involved in any violence but we simply will not be going anywhere. They will have to tow away our vehicles and remove us physically. If they were interested in security, why then a former politician is allowed to carry out construction on a prime land in close proximity to the pier? What is good for the goose should be good for the gander."
Mrs. Assamba said there will be other changes at the pier including "things happening at sea." "We're doing different things at once to ensure these measures are put in place," she said. "Activities will be taking place both on land and at sea."
Sources told The Gleaner that over 100 police officers will be deployed by the Ocho Rios Pier today to ensure that there is no disruption of the relocation exercise and that taxi operators comply with the security measures.
