MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cruise tourist numbers revised up by one third

TOURISM in the Falklands is looking up, with visitor projections far higher than anticipated just three months ago.

After a bout of nerves during winter, when cruise season forecasts appeared sluggish at best, partly due to the withdrawal this year of the super-cruiser Norwegian Sun, the latest figures are promising.

According to the 2010 second quarter forecast, the Falkland Islands Tourist Board says tourist arrivals to the Falkland Islands are expected to increase by almost 32 per cent.

Cruise passenger arrivals are now expected to total approximately 49,000 during the 2010/11 season, a small increase of 1.3 per cent compared to the 2009/10 season, but a massive leap against the June quarter figures, which predicted just 40,572 passengers, a drop of more than 16 per cent.
About 5,500 overnight tourists are expected to visit the Islands, spending over £2.5 million.

Domestic tourism also is forecast to grow, albeit at a moderately low rate of 1.5 per cent, and is expected to generate more than 13,500 trips and £1.15 million in expenditure.

Overall, visitor arrivals in 2010 – including inbound overnight tourists, cruise passengers and domestic tourists – are expected to total 67,000, adding £5.3 million to the Falkland Islands economy.

“The team at the Falkland Islands Tourist Board has been working extremely hard with both communications and our online presence to attract new and current markets to the Islands,” said Paul Trowell, General Manger of FITB.
“It seems these may be starting to pay off.”

The announcement last year that the 2,000-capacity Norwegian Sun would no longer be visiting the Falklands was a blow to the tourist industry. The ship visited the Falklands eight times last season, although it cancelled two, one of which due to sickness on board.

Tour operators and government earn upwards of £100,000 each time a ship of similar size disembarks passengers.

Samantha Marsh, tourism coordinator for Sulivan Shipping Services, said cruise visitor numbers were expected to be up from the actual arrivals of last season, although the 2009-2010 season included 13 no-shows.

“Last year we had a lot of cancellations, reducing the numbers drastically,” said Miss Marsh. “More than 17,000 passengers did not arrive in the Falkland Islands due to a combination of poor weather and the earthquake in Chile.”
“We are expecting at least 68 cruise vessel calls into Stanley, and we are optimistic there will be fewer cancellations this season.”

Mr Trowell said the FITB forecasts for inbound and domestic tourism demand were calculated using an iterative process by drawing on a series of data sources.
These included the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, the UK Office for National Statistics, Visit Britain, Falkland Customs and Immigration, and industry sources in the Falkland Islands.

By Tony Curran – Penguin News - Stanley