AFTER projecting that it will take 340,000 visitors to Jamaica’s shores this year, the world’s second-largest cruise operators, the Royal Caribbean Group, is expecting to increase that number by some 20,000 next year.

Senior executives of the cruise line shared the upbeat projections during a meeting with Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett and officials of the tourism ministry at the Royal Caribbean Group headquarters in Miami on Monday.

The meeting was a part of a major blitz in the United States by Bartlett and his team to engage and shore up key tourism players.

“The discussions revolved around expanding cruise activities [and] enhancing the recovery programme,” said Bartlett following the meeting with the Royal Caribbean officials.

“A lot of focus has to be on Falmouth because [it can be] not just a port of call but a major port of reference. But it is going to require a bit of improvement of excursion experiences, that is what the visitors do when they come off the ships,” said Bartlett as he signalled out the Trelawny-based port.

“We have to provide more of exciting experiences and more attractions for cruise passengers. So we have been talking about that and we are looking at how we can join in expanding the activities in Falmouth,” added Bartlett.

He underscored that the infrastructure in Falmouth has to be improved and pointed out that several State agencies are involved in those discussions to make Falmouth not just a port of call but a cruise town.

“The expansion of activities beyond Falmouth is also in train and we are hoping that we will get 1.3 million visitors this year from cruise and that come 2024 there will be an increase and hopefully we get back to 2019 levels by the end of winter 2024-25,” said Bartlett.

The tourism minister pointed out that based on the reports that he has received the visitor experience in Falmouth leaves something to be desired and said that is going to be addressed.

“Because the hard-cold facts are that customers do have a say in how itineraries are developed and which ports are utilised and which are not, and if they continue to give negative reports about and port but the chances of that port becoming a fixture on the itinerary is very low,” said Bartlett as he argued that all the stakeholders in Jamaica have to do what they can to reduce the negatives.