Tour operations cannot be run in the same manner that minibuses are operated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
This is according to Minister of Tourism Carlos James, during an appearance on VC3’s Roundtable Talk, where he said that reports coming from visitors is that they are being met with an unpleasant rush at the cruise ship berth when disembarking.
Minister James has called for a change in the way taximen conduct themselves when offering their services to visitors as well as locals.
Minister James said he expects to hold meetings of the nation’s taxi associations regarding the issue, as well as other issues.
“The visitors are giving reports that there is no order, there’s a rush, apart from the organized tours, there’s a rush to get visitors who are disembarking to—we cannot run tour operating services as if they are taxis, as if it’s a minibus operation at little Tokyo,”
Minister James said that not all taxi operators are guilty of this issue, but noted that there has to be increase in the level of training of relevant stakeholders to mitigate it.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines saw its first cruise call of the season on November 2nd with the arrival of the ship Britannia, which has a capacity of 3,647.
SVG is expected to have 377 calls for the 2023/2024 cruise season.
