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Cruise ships for 2017 increase by one

[SN file photo]
reporters@samoanews.com
As more ships arrive in Pago Pago, more revenue is generated for our economy, said Lolo.

American Samoa Visitors Bureau has confirmed one more cruise ship for this year, bringing the total of thirteen to the number of cruise ships scheduled to call into the Port of Pago Pago for 2017.

When the official schedule for 2017 was released late last week, there were 12 confirmed ships, but Visitors Bureau director David Vaeafe said yesterday that one more ship is added for the year and this is the “Sea Princess” — arriving April 22nd, the same day as the “Emerald Princess” — the latter is on its maiden visit to Pago Pago.

“So we are going to have two ‘Princesses’ that day that will bring a total of 8,199 passengers and crew to our shores, a record number of cruise visitors to date on one day,” Vaeafe said.

Samoa News notes that this will be the fourth time in recent memory that two cruise ships will dock at Pago Pago Harbor on the same day. The last time two ships called into the Port of Pago Pago on the same day was Oct. 14 of last year bringing 6,800 temporary visitors to the territory.

With 13 ships confirmed for 2017, the Visitors Bureau says the total number of cruise ship visitors — both passengers and crew — for this year is just over 31,000.  As previously reported by Samoa News, the first ship for 2017 is the “Sea Princess” on Jan. 19 with 3,300 passengers and crew.

Meanwhile, Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga notes in his written Comprehensive Report of his State of the Territory Address that the number of cruise ships visiting American Samoa increased in the last four years of the administration, with Visitors Bureau attracting a total of 20 ships from 10 cruise lines with total passengers of 31,932 in 2014 and 16 cruise ships with a total of 28,986 passengers and crew in 2015.

As more ships arrive in Pago Pago, more revenue is generated for our economy, said Lolo.

According to the governor, in 2014, port side market vendors generated close to $194,000 in revenue — compared to $160,487 in 2013. For 2015, revenue generated by market vendors on port side dropped to $105,339 and this denotes a 45.6% drop in revenues made in 2014, evidently due to a drop in the number of ships visiting American Samoa that year.

Samoa News should point out however that part of the drop could be due to market vendors are no longer allowed to sell their wares “on the dock”, but are instead designated stalls on the Fagatogo malae. Not noted in the revenues either is what buses, taxis and other vendors, such as tour guide companies, local stores and restaurants are purported to make during the cruise ship visits.