Record attendance at CSA Cruise Training Course

2008, October 6: The cruise shipping training course, put on by the Caribbean Shipping Association (CSA), in collaboration with the Antigua and Barbuda Cruise Tourism Association (ABCTA) last week in Antigua was a resounding success with over 50 participants in attendance.

The two-day event (which ended on October 1) for Caribbean managers and staff of companies and organizations in the cruise industry had 53 participants from Antigua, Barbuda, BVI, Nevis, St. Kitts and Tobago at the Jolly Beach Hotel in Antigua, where they were exposed to the basics of the cruise industry as well as cruise industry developments in the Caribbean.

Participants included personnel from port authorities, tourist boards, governments, taxi unions, tour operators, merchants and vendors and other service providers to the industry. Special attention was placed on safety & security issues and the process of deploying cruise ships and building itineraries in the Caribbean.

The training course was delivered by the Dutch Caribbean Training Center (DCTC) of Curaçao and the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI) of Jamaica and offered credit points for the CMI Bachelor degree qualification in cruise management. Lectures were given by a core of industry experts, including Jan Sierhuis of Footprints Advisors (Curaçao), Julie-Anne Burrowes of On-board Marketing (Barbados), Fritz Pinnock of the CMI (Jamaica), Twan van Tilburg of the DCTC (Curaçao) and Nathan Dundas, President of the ABCTA and a member of the Caribbean Shipping Association.

The Honorable Eleston Adams, Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Culture & the Environment of Antigua, gave the keynote address and emphasized the importance of training for the further development of the Caribbean.

Caribbean Shipping Association (CSA) President Fernando Rivera remarked in his opening address: “This course represents a milestone for the CSA, both in terms of the record number of participants and the new direction that the CSA is taking in the area of training”  He said although he did not have the numbers at hand, this was obviously a record attendance for a CSA training course, where attendance is, on average, about 20.

Given the positive feed-back of participants and the interest from other destinations to organize similar training courses, Mr. Rivera announced that the CSA was in the process of designing a training schedule for 2009. CSA, he said, was also working on a follow-up cruise training course and training in other areas of shipping relevant to the need of its members across the four language groups in the Caribbean.

Mr. Dundas, as President of ABCTA, applauded the support of the partner organizations and the sponsors in Antigua and Barbuda. He expressed his intention to continue with training for the cruise and shipping sectors in Antigua. Earlier, in his presentation on Cruise Development in Antigua and Barbuda, Mr. Dundas traced the history and updated participants on the recent cruise development projects and infrastructural improvement at St. Johns.

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