Above: Port Zante (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

St Kitts and Nevis says it is predicting a significant increase in cruise traffic for the upcoming season.

The government is predicting around 750,000 cruise passengers, by conservative estimates, according to Tourism Minister Ricky Skerritt. That would be a record for the twin-island federation.

“What’s exciting about this coming season is that we have 183 ship days,” the Minister said in a release. “In other words, in a calendar year for the first time in our history we have passed about 130 in terms of ship days. We have gone up significantly by the number of ship days and that means that over the course of 365 days on average, every other day there will be a ship.”

There will also be 103 days when there will be one ship in port in Basseterre, he said.

Even what Skerritt called a “conservative figure” of 750,000 cruise arrivals would but the destination in the “big time,” he said.

“Last year we were at about just 600,000, so it’s a massive increase this year,” he said. “Two years ago we were able to bring the Allure of the Seas which is called an Oasis-class ship as a test case and that has proven to the world, the capacity of our pier.”

St Kitts is currently planning to build a second pier at Port Zante in Basseterre, which Skerritt said was “very close to starting its construction.”