Caribbean Port Anticipating Record-Breaking Cruise Season

Barbados has correlated info from the 2022-2023 cruise season, demonstrating a sturdy recovery with a lot more than 85% of passengers and cruise ship visits as opposed to the 2018-2019 year prior to the field-large shutdown.

This is a promising outcome thinking of journey constraints ended up nonetheless in perform for section of the period, and projections clearly show Barbados might have a report-breaking 2023-2024 period.

Barbados Ends Strong 2023 Period

The tourism business Cruise Barbados has announced superb recovery quantities for the 2022-2023 cruise year, which ran from Oct 2022 via April 2023.

In complete, 625,847 total cruise passengers frequented the Caribbean nation, brought to Barbados by 362 port of simply call visits from extra than 25 cruise traces. This represents 86% of the totals witnessed during the 2018-2019 cruise time (726,028 passengers more than 384 ship phone calls), the most new calendar year for which complete, unrestricted cruise travel was permitted.

Cruise Ships in Barbados
Picture Credit score: Ana del Castillo / Shutterstock

“We are grateful to witness this exceptional level of restoration following many years of wrestle in the course of the pandemic,” explained Tia Broomes, Cruise Barbados’ Senior Enterprise Progress Officer. “It has emboldened us to emerge more powerful than ever in advance of, steadfastly constructing a brighter foreseeable future.”

Barbados only dropped its remaining COVID-19 travel limitations in September 2022, eliminating all entry specifications for people. This removed the vaccination and testing specifications that experienced built it hard for cruise traces to preserve the port of simply call on a variety of itineraries, due to the timing of screening home windows and the nation’s distance from key homeports.

Up coming Year to Be Even Greater

The encouraging figures for the 2022-2023 period bode well for even far more readers when the next Barbados season begins in just two months. Nearby authorities are projecting a history-breaking 12 months for the 2023-2024 cruise time, with additional than 741,000 visitors anticipated throughout 407 cruise phone calls.

“With a lot more than 25 important cruise lines calling to the Port of Bridgetown, we welcome all vacationers to investigate the unforgettable and immersive excursions our island has to present, such as the signature cave activities, swimming with the turtles, scuba diving, amazing culinary and genuine cultural ordeals,” explained Broomes.

Cruise Ship in Barbados
Photo Credit history: chromoprisme / Shutterstock

Nicknamed “The Gem of the Caribbean,” Barbados provides a large range of wonderful choices for website visitors to enjoy, from normal beauty to distinctive culinary preferences to a exclusive cultural flair.

A variety of cultural festivals, such as the Barbados Foods and Rum Festival (each individual Oct) and the Barbados Reggae Festival (late April) give cruise company even far more incredible options to love the island’s exceptional flair, dependent on cruise itineraries.

Cruising to Barbados

Bridgetown, on the island’s southwestern coastline, is the greatest city and only passenger cruise port. The lively city is usually component of much japanese or southern Caribbean sailings, as nicely as occasional extra unique itineraries such as earth cruises from each key cruise traces as very well as smaller sized luxury traces and expedition sailings.

For the duration of the 2023-2024 cruise season, cruise strains that have prepared visits to Barbados involve Carnival Cruise Line, TUI Cruises, P&O Cruises, AIDA Cruises, Superstar Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Royal Caribbean Worldwide, Princess Cruises, and far more.

It should be famous that some cruise strains do pay a visit to Barbados outdoors the common winter season cruise time, but options for cruise travelers are much additional limited. For illustration, in Could 2023 there were just a few cruise ship visits for the entire month – Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Magic, MSC Cruises’ MSC Divina, and Atlas Ocean Voyages’ Environment Traveller.

In distinction, the thirty day period in advance of – the conclude of the formal time in April 2023 when cruise visitors was already slowing – there were being additional than 30 visits from a lot more than 10 different cruise lines, including overnight calls.

Cruise Ships in Barbados