Hurricane-Spared Caribbean Islands Are Preparing to Welcome More Cruise Ships
Photo Credit: Some Caribbean destinations are preparing to handle rerouted cruise ships during what's normally a quiet shoulder season for the region. Pictured is Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas in port at Fort-de-France, Martinique in 2015. Flickr / Prayitno
Skift Take
The cruise industry in the Caribbean quickly pivoted as it headed into its busiest season. While cruise lines might be able to scrape by relatively unharmed — it's easy to change ports when something goes wrong — the negative impact on destinations missing out on cruise sailings will be felt for years.
With a little more than a month left in the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, a handful of Caribbean islands are already on tap to receive boatloads of additional rerouted cruise sailings and tens of thousands of more passengers through the end of this year.
Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Maria have made this season one of the deadliest and costliest ever recorded and some destinations in the region, such as Puerto Rico, are still without electricity, other utilities and basic supplies after the storms made landfall and passed on. The fallout from the storms comes as the Caribbean's peak tourism season kicks off in December.
Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald said during an earnings call late last month that about seven to nine percent of ports in the Caribbean were affected severely enough to be shut down for some amount of time.
But many ports in the southern and western parts of the region suffered no impact from the storms. The Bahamas escaped damage. And several that had to close
