PRESIDENT and CEO of the Port Authority Jamaica Gordon Shirley says development plans are underway for Jamaica’s three major cruise terminals to capitalise on the reopening of the Cuban market.

Speaking at the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica and the Jamaica Money Market Brokers Imperatives for Growth – Options and Opportunities Forum on Tuesday, Shirley stated the Port Authority is currently focusing on a set of projects that should be completed over the next six to 18 months through a combination of investments from public and private investments from local and international partners.

“On the cruise shipping side of our operations, we are challenged at our major ports by the problem of harassment. It’s a huge problem for us — but despite that last year cruise ship passenger arrivals increased by 17 per cent at all three ports,” he stated.

“Nonetheless, we have to improve on the problems that we face so that the pace of growth will be even larger, particularly with the development that President Obama is intent on implementing which will see Cuba opening up and we stand to benefit from that if we can get our act together.”

The socialist republic is well ahead of Jamaica in tourist arrivals and was growing at a faster rate in 2014. Jamaica had a total of 2.08 million stopover arrivals in 2014 — a growth rate of 3.6 per cent. That compared to three million stopover arrivals for Cuba — a growth rate of 5.3 per cent according to the recently published 2014 Economic and Social Survey Jamaica (ESSJ).

According to Shirley, the Port Authority and the Urban Development Corporation are looking to upgrade the Ocho Rios cruise terminals and tours staging area to ease pedestrian access to the Fisherman’s Village and main street beaches, following the completion of work on Turtle River Road.

Additionally, permission has been obtained for the widening of the cruise berth at Reynolds Pier to accommodate larger cruise ships.

“The pier that we had built originally could take two cruise ships but is now too small. So we have an agreement with Reynolds Pier to redevelop the area as a tourism port and then to link that to our existing terminals. We want to transform Ocho Rios and that will help to address the harassment problems we are now facing,” Shirley stated.

He added that the Port Authority is also working in partnership with the second largest cruise shipping line in the Caribbean for the deepening of the second berth at Falmouth, while Montego Bay is exclusively being developed for home-porting activities.

“We have one berth that can take some of the largest ships in the world; they have asked us to work with them on converting the second berth to take similar size vessels. We are also working on a number of closer attractions for Falmouth to make it a unique tourism area.”

“We see a very significant impact on the communities of Ocho Rios, Falmouth and Montego Bay from the projects I have described, all of which have to be done and are durable. We also believe that this will transform the maritime sector and assist us in becoming a leader in our hemisphere,” Shirley said.