MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands attend Miami cruise convention
THE growing Falkland Islands tourism industry has been represented at this year's Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention, held in Miami, Florida.
Margaret Williams of the Falkland Islands Tourist Board, and Debbie Summers of Sulivan Shipping made the long journey to Miami for the event, the largest international exhibition and conference serving the cruise industry.
This year's convention year attracted approximately 950 exhibitors from over 100 countries, including cruise industry executives, tour operators, suppliers and tourist boards. The Convention also attracted around 35,000 visitors.
Margaret reported that two very useful days of the conference, "...provided valuable insight into the current state and development of the industry, and cruise lines' future plans.
"The sessions also covered topics directly relevant to the Falkland Islands industry such as port agency and ground handling provision, the growing importance of shore excursions, and how smaller ports are competing for and catering to the ever-increasing size of cruise ships."
Additionally, she said, the Convention presented the opportunity, "...to visit stands manned by tourist boards from all over the world and find out how other tourism bodies promote their destinations and manage their tourism in general; the majority of whom offered to share their information and the Tourist Board will be following these up during the winter."
Margaret said that, as well as demonstrating the Falkland Islands' commitment to its tourism industry, "...attendance at this event has provided many ideas as to how we can improve the quality of our service to tourists and cruise companies in the future." (PN)
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