Monday, September 25, 2006

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: In the words of its Greek owner, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, easyCruise has decided to reposition to St Maarten this winter, stating, 'We got a better deal from St Maarten overall, especially when the cost of bunkers is taken into account.'

According to Barbados hotelier, Adrian Loveridge, the loss of yet another cruise ship does nothing to encourage the already depleted number of cruise ship passenger arrivals into Barbados this year.

Last winter easyCruise used Barbados as its principal joining and departure point in the Caribbean, being the only port in a seven day itinerary where two nights were spent.

This provided many hotels, especially the smaller properties with valuable pre- and post-cruise stays and gave them and the destination the opportunity of converting these guests into long stay visitors.

Commenting on the loss of the cruise operator, Loveridge said, "It's a major blow, particularly to our smaller accommodation providers. easyCruise brought a new niche market to Barbados. It provided many first time visitors with an enormous potential of turning them into regular repeat clients."

easyCruise is part of the easyGroup whose interests include one of Europe's most successful low cost air carriers, easyJet.

"In time, I believe we could have tempted easyJet to feed thousands of air passengers from the dozens of destinations they serve in Europe through their London hub Stansted, onto the Caribbean to join easyCruise," said Loveridge.

While easyCruise's fleet is currently only two ships, it is expected to grow to eight ships by 2011.

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