Maimon Port. Will it actually pay off?

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PeterInBrat

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I got sidetracked on another thread about the cruise ships and checked out this PDF about the ports in Costa Rica~ it may not be the cash cow some folks are hoping for.

http://www.incae.edu/EN/clacds/publicaciones/pdf/cen664.pdf

In 2003, they were still averaging fewer than 1000 tourists a day. I don't see that as a game changer for the local economy. That's not even one good sized AI..

Can the DR really do much better? I dunno..
 
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dv8

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it will help some. i presume there will be jobs available like cleaning, security and so on. and deals will be organized with taxistas and excursion companies. low level jobs. which is just as good because it will give employment to those who have little abilities and qualifications. it will make POP a bit better. every workplace created counts...
 
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the gorgon

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PeterInBrat said:
I got sidetracked on another thread about the cruise ships and checked out this PDF about the ports in Costa Rica~ it may not be the cash cow some folks are hoping for.

http://www.incae.edu/EN/clacds/publicaciones/pdf/cen664.pdf

In 2003, they were still averaging fewer than 1000 tourists a day. I don't see that as a game changer for the local economy. That's not even one good sized AI..

Can the DR really do much better? I dunno..
Click to expand...

i posted numerous times regarding the economic impact of cruise ships in the caribbean basin. they are no where near as useful as people like to think.
 
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PeterInBrat

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It looks like more than 50% of cruise ship shopping goes to duty free goods, which by in large is going to be imported goods. That's fine for the retailer, who will still gets a good mark-up, but anything imported means that a good chunk of the money is leaving the country and another chunk is going to go to concession fees. It's not like the cashiers are going to be making a commission. We've all seen what they sell in duty free and very little of it(aside from rum and cigars) is Dominican in origin. With only 8% going to food, that's not going to support many new restaurants. They cite 17% going to day tours. That's something, I guess... 100 more people going to Ocean World a day would be great, but how many more jobs would it create? 10, maybe? yippie.

Average land expenditures for cruise tourists in the Caribbean range from $15 to $270 in 2001
(CTO, 2003), differences driven largely by the purchases of imported luxury goods with little
Pattullo (1996) finds 45-67% of onshore expenditures went to duty free shopping,
17% to tours and attractions and 8% on food. Gabe et al. (2003) finds an average land
expenditure of $85.26 in Bar Harbor, Maine, an estimated $105.82 including tours purchased on
board. Both means are somewhat skewed by jewelry purchases (Gabe et al., 2003). In the US
Virgin Islands some 80% of onshore purchases is for duty free shopping, while the similar figure
for Martinique is 50% (Pattullo, 1996a).
Click to expand...
 
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the gorgon

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PeterInBrat said:
It looks like more than 50% of cruise ship shopping goes to duty free goods, which by in large is going to be imported goods. That's fine for the retailer, who will still gets a good mark-up, but anything imported means that a good chunk of the money is leaving the country and another chunk is going to go to concession fees. It's not like the cashiers are going to be making a commission. We've all seen what they sell in duty free and very little of it(aside from rum and cigars) is Dominican in origin. With only 8% going to food, that's not going to support many new restaurants. They cite 17% going to day tours. That's something, I guess... 100 more people going to Ocean World a day would be great, but how many more jobs would it create? 10, maybe? yippie.
Click to expand...

what the day tour figure does not indicate is that most day tours are sold by the cruise operator, which receives a large chunk of the revenue, leaving the actual provider with just a portion. secondly, the tour operators have their designated providers, so the average independent is cut out of the loop. figures from similar caribbean studies show that the average of cruise passenger spend on tips and gratuities is somewhere around a dollar. not really good news for locals.
 
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PJT

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Jan 8, 2002
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What makes it worthy ?

The marketing people at the cruise lines have to ask themselves what does Maimon have to offer that would make it worthy as a port of call over other competing ports?

It would be an exotic port of call and nothing more. Sort of like a stop for the tourist bus to unload passengers to buy trinkets. After a while the stop looses favor and the the tourist bus finds a new one.

The port project is a pie in the sky matter that cannot be supported by the local infrastructure at this time. Do not be surprised if the plug is pulled on future expenditures.

Cuba lurks in the background and the cruise lines are waiting with great anticipation for the trade embargos to be relaxed.


Regards,

PJT
 
Luperon

Luperon

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The Govt will collect many millions which they will responsibly use to better education and infrastructure.
 
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the gorgon

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PJT said:
The marketing people at the cruise lines have to ask themselves what does Maimon have to offer that would make it worthy as a port of call over other competing ports?

It would be an exotic port of call and nothing more. Sort of like a stop for the tourist bus to unload passengers to buy trinkets. After a while the stop looses favor and the the tourist bus finds a new one.

The port project is a pie in the sky matter that cannot be supported by the local infrastructure at this time. Do not be surprised if the plug is pulled on future expenditures.

Cuba lurks in the background and the cruise lines are waiting with great anticipation for the trade embargos to be relaxed.


Regards,

PJT
Click to expand...

cruise ship ports are revenue capture destinations. the reason why cruise ships exist is to make money. the port of call is just one more opportunity. they use the leverage of wealth and power to tailor the conditions so there is an appearance of benefit to locals, meanwhile this condition is next to non-existent. Maimon is probably going to be closer in configuration to Labadee, as opposed to Falmouth in Jamaica. either way, most of the offerings that will be available to the visitor will be under the control of the operator, and the locals will get a token pittance of the visitor spend. there are numerous working papers in existence to support that contention.
 
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PeterInBrat

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Gorgon beat me to it..

Do the cruise passengers still have to pay entry fees?

100,000 passengers a year...
 
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the gorgon

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Dolores said:
There are no entry fees in La Romana. Would suppose this will be replicated for Maimon.
Click to expand...

there is a substantial entry fee in Hamilton, Bermuda, but in most other places it is minimal. the cruise lines have successfully bullied the caribbean ports of call to the point where entry fees are insignificant. one line actually withdrew from an island that wanted more than 10 dollars per visitor. there is no cohesion between the islands, since they are all desperate for cruise ship presence. there are protocols that are in place to protect the islands from toxic dumping and just normal waste disposal in coastal waters, but the island governments are so scared of the cruise lines that none of them are signatories to the protocols.
 
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mishugana

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Dec 15, 2006
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the gorgon said:
there is a substantial entry fee in Hamilton, Bermuda, but in most other places it is minimal. the cruise lines have successfully bullied the caribbean ports of call to the point where entry fees are insignificant. one line actually withdrew from an island that wanted more than 10 dollars per visitor. there is no cohesion between the islands, since they are all desperate for cruise ship presence. there are protocols that are in place to protect the islands from toxic dumping and just normal waste disposal in coastal waters, but the island governments are so scared of the cruise lines that none of them are signatories to the protocols.
Click to expand...

As a TA the port Fees and taxes are included in the fare paid
 
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the gorgon

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the way to make sure that locals make some money is to have an array of girlie bars near the cruise port, so single travelers can spend some money on the local fauna.
 
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dv8

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that's the view from the road. cannot see much because there isn't much to see:

o6e1q1.jpg


and:

117y79v.jpg
 
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wrecksum

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Sep 27, 2010
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I spent a couple of days at the cruise terminal in Grand Turk watching the passengers come and go. Some times there were 3 ships in and 1 waiting off, but out of those thousands of pax, there were hardly any in town or looking around. The open resort where I was is directly on the beach next to the ships and not one pax came in for a bite or a drink. A couple of the crew came in for a drink and that was it.

Most stayed around or in the cruise center. They have a sort of zona franca where the pax don't need passports to go into but they had to show something, pass or ID I guess, to leave this area.We could not venture in without some authorisation.
It was quite bizarre.

OK. There are not a lot of attractions in GTK but I expected more adventurous souls but, not so.
Probably makes a bunch of money for the Govt. but not so much for the locals.
 
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