~ Destination to see increase in cruise passengers in 2017/2018 ~
PORT ST. MAARTEN – A Port St. Maarten delegation led by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Mingo are currently in Miami, Florida attending the Executive Partner Summit of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) which is taking place from November 13 – 15.
Mingo welcomes the new CLIA Global Chairman Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation & plc, as of January 1, 2017. Donald was appointed by the CLIA Board of Directors ad succeeds Adam M. Goldstein, President and Chief Operations Officer of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., who served as CLIA Global Chairman since January 2015.
“On behalf of Port St. Maarten and the destination, we congratulate Arnold Donald on his appointment and we wish him much success with this new appointment as an advocate for the global cruise community,” Port St. Maarten CEO Mark Mingo said on Monday from Miami.
More than 200 members are attending the summit which offers exclusive networking opportunities, one-to-one meetings, high level discussion and debate.
Mingo added that during the summit, he met with a number of cruise executives who have committed themselves to increasing cruise tourism passenger numbers to the destination in 2017/2018.
“As ships are getting bigger, we need to answer the challenges on dealing with the size of vessels and making the necessary investments that would allow us as a leading port of call to stay up to par.
“Shore excursions are also another essential point and the current construction of the Rain Forest Adventure Park will be an asset in increasing our destination experience. I would like to remind all stakeholders that the promotion of the destination by travel agents remains the key as well as the functioning of the St. Maarten Tourism Authority,” Mingo concluded.
Also part of the St. Maarten delegation is, Bertrand Peters, General and Governmental Affairs Liaison, and Lela Simmonds, Project & Cruise Provisioning Coordinator at Port St. Maarten.
CLIA was established in 1975, and is the world’s largest cruise industry trade association, providing a unified voice and leading authority of the global cruise community.
The association has 15 offices globally with representation in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australasia.
CLIA supports policies and practices that foster a safe, secure, healthy and sustainable cruise ship environment and is dedicated to promote the cruise travel experience.
CLIA’s membership comprises of 62 cruise lines, 275 executive partners and 20,000 global travel agency and 30,000 travel agent members. CLIA member lines serve more than 23 million passengers annually.
The benefits of taking a cruise are the ease of travel to the best return on experience. According to CLIA 2016 State of the Cruise Industry report, cruise travel is outpacing land-based general leisure travel by 22 per cent in the United States.
