By the Caribbean Journal staff

The island of Nevis is projecting record-breaking cruise passenger traffic in 2017-2018, tourism officials said this week.

There are 100 scheduled cruise calls to the island for this upcoming season, a 72 percent increase compared to 2016-2017, according to Devon Liburd, director of sales and marketing at the Nevis Tourism Authority.

“As we look at the passenger capacity for 2016-2017 we had just about 9,386 possible passengers coming on cruise ships and for this season, 2017-2018, we have a passenger capacity of 20,575 cruise passengers. This equals to 11,189 additional passengers or a 119 percent increase over last year,” he said.

The wave of new cruises will include seven ships visiting Nevis for the first time, including Crystal Esprit, Viking Sea and Seabourn Odyssey, among others.

Last year, there were 60 overall cruise calls to Nevis, with a total of 8,562 passengers.