Local Vendors size up Grand Turk Cruise Industry

Providenciales, TCI, January 24, 2017 – The Premier says it is serious that Grand Turk, an 11 year old cruise port is seeing such a steady decline in interest among cruisers through the region and invited the stakeholders in Grand Turk to a meeting where they got to dish on the challenges and got to present ideas to improve the industry.

As many as six of the seven government ministers attended the town hall meeting held in the Capital and comments included a call for vendors to be more innovative, questions about the true impact of the cruise industry on the economy of Grand Turk, problems with speeding and road safety, disappointment with use of bad language and giving of bad customer service to guests, inadequate facilities to accommodate boaters, the expense of doing business, inability to gain insurance as water sports operators, problems with garbage, feelings of an unfair business landscape due to often overbearing Carnival Cruise Lines policies which those attending say limits guests interactions with local vendors and a long standing row over land for a vendors village and public beach access.

One representative of the boaters said guests prefer to come directly to them for sea adventures because their costs are more competitive; he called on the Premier to embrace their organization as wanting to contribute to the development of the destination’s activities, especially because a leading complaint for Grand Turk as a cruise port is a lack of things to do.

#MagneticNewsMedia