Barbados welcomes luxurious cruise Mein Schiff 6 on maiden call with over 2500 visitors

Barbados welcomed the luxurious cruise Mein Schiff 6, which docked at the Port of Bridgetown on its inaugural call on Monday. The cruise brought a whopping 2636 guests who disembarked to explore the island nation.

The captain of the vessel Todd Burgman and his 923 crew members were welcomed ashore by a delegation which comprised of representatives from the Barbados Port Inc and Platinum Port Agency. A traditional plaque exchange ceremony was hosted by the officials aboard the vessel to mark the Mein Schiff 6’s maiden call.

[caption id="attachment_70046" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Plaque exchange ceremony held aboard the Mein Schiff 6[/caption] The cruise vessel departed for Castries, Saint Lucia, on Tuesday before heading to Palma de Mallorca.

The Mein Schiff 6 is a luxurious cruise owned by TUI Cruises. It was launched on November 8, 2013, and built for an amount of US$65 million. The arrival of the cruise to Barbados showcases the growing presence of the island among international cruise liners.

Notably, Minister of Tourism Ian Gooding Edghill said that tourism is in safe hands during a recent press conference. He announced that summer cruising has returned, meaning that the cruises will arrive even during the summer.

According to the Minister, the island anticipated 24 calls with close to 50,000 cruise passengers this summer. In addition to this, the island will welcome around 406 cruises in the winter cruise season 2024-2025 which will bring more than 742,000 passengers.

This shows an increase of 6 percent year on year of the toral number of cruise arrivals in the country, said Minister Edghill.

While sharing the statistics, he said that he was pleased with the outlook of the tourism sector and also added that the administration recognises the value of the sector which employs thousands of citizens of Barbados and he is conscious of this. He also noted that he wants to see the sector moving beyond celebrating growth to experience growth and development in their livelihoods and lives of all workers at all levels with the tourism sector.