MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands Tourist Board and cruise lines working on solutions for clash days

A busy day at the Stanley Jetty Visitor Centre, great for the economy but not necessarily for Islanders normal life

The issue of the controversial clash days during the cruise summer season was also addressed by ExCo in its end of September meeting. It was noted that the Falkland Island Tourist Board (FITB) is currently taking cruise ship bookings out to the 2026/27 season and intends to continue monitoring future clash days during the 2024/25 season.

 According to FITB's reservations during the 2024/2025 only 3 clash days are currently expected, and FITB’s recommends that the status quo (i.e., no restrictions on either ship or passenger numbers) be maintained if clash days do not appear to be increasing. This was agreed with cruise companies since their bookings are mostly two years ahead.

However FITB’s intention is that if clash days for future seasons appear to be increasing, it will begin requesting implementation of a points-based system for cruise ship bookings to be effective 2 years after approval (i.e., a policy approved in 2025 would be effective from the 2027/28 season).

Exco agreed in principle the points-based system outlined in this paper, noting that formal approval would be sought in a future ExCo paper prior to any implementation.

Clash days are when two or three cruise vessels coincide and hundreds of visitors, maybe even thousands “invade” the Islands, particularly Stanley. Despite the significance of tourism for the Falklands economy, as is happening in many hot spots in the world, locals feel overwhelmed and their lives distorted by such a number of visitors. It must be remembered that the population of the whole of the Islands is 3,600 and Stanley some 2,500. The capacity of the latest vessel designs is sometimes larger that the local population.