Global Ports Holding (GPH) executives took half in a collection of government-endorsed stakeholder conferences final week to debate each the group advantages and collaboration alternatives throughout the St. Lucia Cruise Port venture.
According to a press launch, the partnership between the Government of St. Lucia and Global Ports Holding features a 30-year concession settlement for cruise-related operations at Castries and Soufriere Bay.
“We’re extremely excited to work with key stakeholders across the Saint Lucian cruise and tourism sectors,” mentioned Colin Murphy, GPH head of enterprise improvement, Americas.
“We have received such a warm welcome and very positive responses from the groups we’ve spoken to. We recognize that establishing strong relationships with key stakeholders is a critical part of ensuring that this partnership is successful for everyone, which is why we made having these conversations our immediate priority after signing the Memorandum of Understanding.”
Under the settlement, Global Ports Holding will improve Berth 1 at Pointe Seraphine as a way to accommodate Oasis-class ships. This is anticipated to extend the variety of passengers coming to St. Lucia from the annual peak of 790,000 to over one million passengers per 12 months.
The operations are additionally anticipated to scale back site visitors congestion and enhance the visitor expertise by introducing new ferries and ferry routes to Banannes Bay, LPC and Pointe Seraphine.
GPH will proceed to put money into the enlargement of cruise port infrastructure in addition to cultural and heritage tourism websites by creating the Fisherman’s Village, Vendor’s Arcade and Soufriere Bay.
“Over the last few days, we’ve shared our ideas and received great feedback about the needs and wants of the community and the things that we need to consider,” mentioned Murphy.
“We know that there is a lot of work to do, but we also know that we can’t do it alone. Your success is our success and recognizing that, everyone’s voice is important. There are many seats at this table.”
GPH can even present monetary reduction to the Government of St. Lucia and the Saint Lucia Air and Sea Port Authority (SLASPA) by taking up roughly $20 million in SLASPA debt.