TRANSPORT and Works Minister, Mike Henry has delivered a caustic response to statements made by Opposition Spokesman on Tourism, Dr. Wykeham McNeill last Tuesday in an address at an investor forum in Kingston about the prospects for the local cruise shipping sector when the new Falmouth Cruise Port in Trelawny opens.

In chastising the opposition spokesman, Henry yesterday dismissed McNeill’s critiques as representative of, “the People’s National Party’s now standard ‘gloom and doom’ syndrome,” adding that it, “went way out of sync with the realities surrounding the pending opening and operation of the Falmouth facility”.

In his press release, the transport and works minister noted that, “It is quite interesting that after years of neglect by the last two PNP administrations, in which he served as a junior tourism minister, Dr. McNeil is now critical of the development of the Falmouth port, which is a highly strategic element of the development of the local cruise shipping infrastructure.” Henry said.

“With his government having talked much but done very little about developing the sector over many years, the ‘goodly doc’ now appears to be quite ‘concerned’ about the positives ahead for both Jamaicans in general and the present administration, from the introduction of the high-tech mega-port. And, as is the norm these days, it appears that what is not considered good for the PNP is automatically not considered good for the country, at least by the Opposition,” a sarcastic Henry declared.

He also posits, that the establishment of the Falmouth Pier is critical to the Jamaican cruise sector, and will be a major component of the tourism industry in the future, adding that if the Port Authority did not actively explore and pursue strategies to enhance Jamaica’s market share, the country stood to lose significant numbers of cruise ship passengers.

The transport minister reiterated that Falmouth was identified as a suitable site for present and future generations of cruise ships by the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), in an effort to protect Jamaica’s position among the elite of the world’s premier cruise destinations.

With the advent of mega ships, the development of the controversial Falmouth Pier has been sold to the country as the best way to attract mega cruise lines based on its high-tech facilities.

“The new facility, therefore, is really about augmenting the cruise shipping facilities across the country, and definitely not about Falmouth choking any other port, as Dr. McNeill postured,” Henry declared.

The opposition spokesman on tourism issued a warning last week that there could be a significant drop in the number of ships calling at the traditional ports in Ocho Rios, St Ann and Montego Bay, St James, when the Falmouth pier is up and running.

McNeill was one of the speakers addressing the topic: ‘Falmouth/Cruise Ship Pier – Visitor Numbers and the Impact to the Respective Port Towns’ at the Stocks and Securities Limited’s investor forum in St Andrew.

McNeill reportedly said with the advent of the new pier in Falmouth, arrivals could decline as much as 30 to 50 per cent.

His comments obviously irked the transport minister, who yesterday also described the opposition spokesman’s analysis of the projected performance of the cruise sector as “essentially an act of politicking, and neither reflective of the actual realities, nor in the best interest of either the sector or the country at large.”

Henry insisted that the PAJ is committed to maintaining a sustainable cruise market, and the Falmouth Pier is expected to meet the demands of the competitiveness in the marketplace, noting that the Authority is working assiduously to achieve its tourist arrival projections for the period 2011 – 2012 — 479,000 for Ocho Rios, 283,000 for Montego Bay and 562,000 for Falmouth.