The forecast for St. Croix’s upcoming cruise ship season is hopeful.
Last season St. Croix saw some 75 cruise ships call, with large ships in Frederiksted and smaller-sized vessels in Gallows Bay.
The tentative schedule for the 1999-2000 season, which runs from Nov. 1 through the end of April, has approximately 20 more ships listed, according to a V.I. Port Authority list from May 15.
"I think we’re looking at a better season than last year," said Mike McQueston, owner of St. Croix Bike and Tours in Frederiksted. "Instead of two or three (ships) a week, this year we should have three on a steady basis, maybe four. That's if the whole thing stays together" and the hurricane season ends without incident.
A Port Authority employee said Monday that an updated schedule will be made available later in the week, with some additions and a few deletions.
Earlier this year, Edward Thomas, president and CEO of the West Indian Company Limited, said 93 ships would call on the Big Island.
Calvin Wheatley, WICO spokesman, said Thomas would be in Miami this week talking to officials at several cruise lines to determine final port calls for both St. Thomas and St. Croix.
After St. Croix’s business community protested in the early part of 1998 that St. Thomas was getting hundreds of ships a year compared to St. Croix’s 75 or less, WICO began working with the Port Authority to market the Big Island as a port of call. One offshoot of the partnership was the decision to waive port fees on St. Croix for ships calling on St. Thomas.
A potential threat to more ships visiting St. Croix, however, could be a proposal to increase the $5 per-person cruise ship visitor fee by $2.50. The increase wasn’t well received by the cruise lines or by many cruise-dependent merchants, especially on St. Thomas, said Noel Loftus, president of the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce.
"At this moment it’s on hold," he said, adding that the Florida Caribbean Cruise line Association, members of the Legislature’s majority and members of both islands’ chambers have met recently. "We’re discussing how to mitigate the $2.50 head tax."
Since most ships visit St. Thomas before St. Croix, Loftus said the increase could affect the Big Island’s effort to attract more cruise visitors. Add the increased head tax to current fees at the WICO dock, he said, and the cruise lines could flex their muscle.
"If they take the fees at (Havensight) too high, the cruise lines will begin looking at other destinations," Loftus said. "If they get angry at St. Thomas, St. Croix will feel it."
Meanwhile, WICO’s Thomas has said repeatedly that while the cruise lines have indicated a willingness to market St. Croix, they point out that there is a need for more tours and other activities to occupy passengers. At the economic summit in March, Thomas said there was a need on St. Croix to create ecotours, expand tours of historic buildings and develop activities unique to the island.
McQueston, who offers cruise passengers historic tours of Frederiksted and the west end, agreed that St. Croix needed to etch its own identity. He said the cruise lines use an international flavor when they market their trips to the French, Dutch and Latin islands.
St. Thomas, he said, is already associated with America and shopping.
"That’s why we have to market ourselves differently than St. Thomas," he said, adding that St. Croix’s historical ties to Denmark are a good place to start. "As long as they’re lumping us in with St. Thomas, we’re not going to compete with them."
