Is the VI caught in competition war with cruise liners?
While speaking as a caller on the Speak Out BVI radio show aired last evening, October 22, 2013, Henry said cruise ships have been dominating and manipulating the territories for a long time and expressed that the government of the Virgin Islands has recognised this and has been trying their best not to put the strength into the hands of cruise liners.
He argued that part of the problem with government’s negotiations (reportedly led by Works Minister Hon. Mark H. Vanterpool) with Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) and Disney Cruise Line (DCL), and perhaps the reason that no agreement has been signed as yet, is because both companies are also looking for concessions that the territory can’t seem to agree on. “If we could have agreed, we would have already signed,” he proposed.
“Those cruise ships are also asking for things that people don’t know about and the Minister’s not sharing. They are also asking for rights to control the flow of the berthing, which is what Carnival [Cruise Line] highlighted… and they also would be able to use that right to trade spaces in other territories,” Henry said.
According to Henry, each of the cruise lines, Carnival, NCL and Disney are demons, “that’s what these guys do, they compete… they go out and they compete for market share just like everybody else.”
The commentator said though he is not part of the negotiation process, he simply wished to bring some reasoning to the table, “because I really think that they who are negotiating for us are failures. That’s how I look at it. Every little scheme they have tried so far, failed.”
“Everybody understands if you’re in business or finance you understand exactly what the government is trying to do. They need guarantees in order to secure a loan in order to build the dock. But that isn’t what the government told us. The government told us that they are going to do the dock themselves,” he asserted.
Henry also noted that regardless of which cruise line came, the territory would eventually be guaranteed a $15 head tax because this was the legislation enacted for visitors to the territory.
Meanwhile Co-host Natalio Wheatley aka Sowande Uhuru said the problem that Carnival is having now, is having to go through NCL and DCL, “to ask someone to go through their competitor is somewhat of an undignified situation to be in,” he noted.
He felt that if the intention was to introduce new demographics through NCL and DCL, then the territory shouldn’t be burning its bridges to do so, “and I think an additional pier would allow you to be able to see if you could keep Carnival and Disney. If you want to give those special privileges, have Norwegian and Disney build you a pier in a different location and then you can keep Carnival and some of the other ships,” Wheatley added.
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33 Responses to “Is the VI caught in competition war with cruise liners?”
I do believe that there is a war going on between the cruise companies using BVI as a pawn and scaring the Government with ultimatums, but we forget that we are in the drivers seat. We have the destination they are all fighting over. So if we get too many ships and thousands a day, do we run the risk of ruining the very thing people come to see? How many is too many?
well you £$% are the lossers. Carnival bring a lot of money in......ok they should take there money else where......
M & M are sorry excuses of Ministers! because of them, the ndp is at an all time low. i wouldnt be surprise come 2015 and these blind, young idiots vote them back in.
In the pass, Government arranged for berthage at the Cruise Ship Dock. ALL requests were processed by the Port Authority. Departure tax was set by the Government [Port Auth.]. DCL won the tender to carry out the necessary work at the Cruise Ship Dock and apparently is prepared to spend some $12 mil. in carrying out this work. To accommodate DCL, the Port Auth. has agreed to relinquish its rights to process all requests for berthage at the Dooc and allowed DCL to increase the departure tax three fold. Please note, this was done with out the knowledge of the other cruise operators. This injformation was revealed when Canival and others attempted to make bookings for the 2015/16 season, only to be told that on mid week days when most of the visits are made, the dock is all booked up by Who? DCL and NCL.
The question one must ask is, have Mark and Claud turned over the Port to these two companies for how many years for $12 million?
What is of interest is Mark's claimed that DCL will deliver some 500,000 pax. per annum to the BVI. BUT the combined figures for DCL and NCL fall well short of the mark. Needless to say, this has been tried else where and in short order the operators walked away from the Agreement using an escape clause in the said Agreement.
What we have before us is an untidy situation which must be dealt with swiftly less we suffer the consequences. I am uncertain about Mark's ability to champion this cause let alone Claud and or POW. Trust me , doing nothing is not an option.