Tag Archives: Barbados

Caribbean Facts and Figures

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Interesting
Caribbean
facts & tidbits

Tourist count

Roughly two million tourists visit the Caribbean Islands per year.

World’s top cruise destination

The Caribbean accounts for nearly half of the industry’s passenger count. Most of the world’s major cruise ships winter here.

Economy

Tourism drives the economy of most Caribbean islands. And the United States is the chief trading partner in goods and raw materials.

Caribbean compared to the Atlantic

The Caribbean water is significantly warmer, calmer, clearer and less salty. These attributes draw tourists.

Size

The Caribbean Sea is the world’s second largest sea. The biggest, the Mediterranean, is only 9% larger.

Depth

The Caribbean Sea’s deepest point is 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) below sea level.

Number of Islands

The Caribbean officially has over 7,000 islands (but that figure includes small cays, reefs, and islets). Only about 150 islands are inhabited.

Population

When Columbus arrived in 1492, the Caribbean had an estimated population of 700,000. Today, the number is about 40 million. Most descend from African slaves.

Language

Creole, Dutch, English, French, and Spanish are the top five languages spoken in the Caribbean. The entrenched European language on any given island reflects the island’s colonial heritage.

Nautical link

The Caribbean Sea connects the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean (with the assistance of the Panama Canal).

Geographical origins

The rugged-mountain islands (think Jamaica) are mainly volcanic in origin. Flat islands (like Barbados) were formed by coral formation and rising sea beds.

Etymology

The Caribbean is named after the native Carib people who once dominated many of the islands.

Best Caribbean cruise lines

Best luxury

Silversea Cruises ships are modest sized and sport spiffy interiors. Passengers are sophisticated, congenial, and well-traveled. Food and service are highly regarded. Crew-to-passenger ratio is high.

Best luxury-upmarket

Azamara Club Cruises has two ships, each accommodating up to 644 passengers. Its price point is between upmarket and luxury. They provide vacationers with a needed niche between luxury and mid-priced fares.


to see my tip-and-photo pages on the Azamara Quest ship.

Best upmarket

Celebrity Cruises is upmarket, thus clearly superior to the mid-priced lines in many ways, including cabin space, service, entertainment, food, and passenger sophistication. Most ships carry about 2,000 passengers.

Best 20-something party boat

Carnival Cruise Line has a well-documented fun, party-boat reputation. Fare are mid-priced and ships are quite large (about several thousand passengers). Has glitzy Las Vegas style entertainment and decor.

Best for families

If your children
are 9 or younger

Disney Cruise Line has four ships, all family oriented. Pleasing kids is the prime focus, but there’s something for everyone. The Fantasy is the best and newest Disney ship.

If your children
are teens

Royal Caribbean International has specialized facilities and programs for teens. But there’s plenty going on to please parents and other adults. Passengers: About 3,000.

If your children
tweens ( to 12)

If 9 to 10, Disney Cruise Line is a better fit.  If 11 to 12, Royal Caribbean is better.

Brand plans in the Caribbean

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Brand plans in the Caribbean

By Tom Stieghorst

*InsightAs cruising grows globally, the Caribbean finds itself competing with rich destinations that have plenty of capital. How do Caribbean countries find the resources to keep their edge in the battle for passengers?

One solution appears to be to tap into the power of established local brands, as some cruise lines and tour operators are doing in Jamaica.

Royal Caribbean International has struck a branding partnership with Red Stripe, the well-known beer brewed on the island by Desnoes & Geddes. The beer’s squat brown bottle and painted label are a Jamaican icon, and it is distributed in a number of foreign countries by Diageo, the worldwide liquor marketer.*TomStieghorst

Another example is support by Appleton Rum for tours of the 2,000 acre Good Hope estate, a plantation near Falmouth where Royal’s giant Oasis and Allure of the Seas ships dock.

Tour operator Chukka Caribbean Adventures offers the culturally-focused tours. This year it developed excursions for guests to the estate based on coffee, spices and rum, all which were once produced at the historical attraction.

Visitors can take a step back in time to when plantation culture was in its prime, and then purchase products before returning to their ship.

In addition to Appleton, sponsors include Jablum Coffee and Walkerswood Jerk Seasoning.

The use of international brands leverages the earning power of local Caribbean businesses beyond what they might otherwise yield. Some of that money can be returned to marketing local tourist sites to international travelers, fueling a virtuous cycle.

The possibility for rum and beer sponsorships across the Caribbean seems especially promising, with nearly every island producing its own version of rum, from Cruzan in the Virgin Islands to Mount Gay in Barbados and Betancourt in Haiti.

Beyond Red Stripe, beer exports with international followings include Presidente and Bohemia in the Dominican Republic and Kalik in the Bahamas.

Branded partnerships represent the kind of creative financial thinking that Caribbean destinations will have to employ to compete with rich destinations like Singapore and Hong Kong for cruise passengers.

Home-grown brands are a not-so-hidden Caribbean asset, and the time is ripe to put them to good use.

Free mobile roaming to change the game for cruise holidays?

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Free mobile roaming to change the game for cruise holidays?

T-Mobile has announced ambitious plans to free its customers of international roaming charges in more than 100 countries.

The provider, part of the EE group, claimed that it is currently too expensive for people to stay connected with one another while travelling over international boundaries.

While Europeans have benefitted by an assault on the worst excesses of roaming charges within the EU, the rest of the world remains something of an expensive wilderness for UK mobile phone users.

The current T-Mobile offer is available to US customers through its Simple Choice payment plan, launching on October 31st, and ensures that data and text costs are capped at local (US) rates, while call costs will also be capped.

John Legere, president and chief executive of T-Mobile US, said: “Today’s phones are designed to work around the world, but we’re forced to pay insanely inflated international connectivity fees to actually use them.”

For people cruising in North America and the surrounding region, it could well be worth purchasing a US sim card on the plan from T-Mobile before boarding your cruise.

This is particularly useful for those cruising to the Caribbean, with Cruise Fever reporting that Aruba, Bermuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Grand Cayman, Curacao, Jamaica, St Maarten, St Kitts, Turks & Caicos, and Mexico are all covered.

In the meantime, holidaymakers on this side of the Atlantic who wish to roam outside of Europe will need to wait and see if T-Mobile (and others) bring similar payment plans to the UK.