The Saint Lucia Tourism Authority has collaborated with the Ministry of Tourism, Invest Saint Lucia, and the Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority to ensure continuous enhancement of Saint Lucia’s Cruise Tourism Product.
A record, 760,306 cruise passengers visited the Saint Lucia during the 2018 calendar year, owing to an expansion of Berth #1 at Pointe Seraphine, which allowed Port Castries to accommodate Vista, Quantum and Freedom Class vessels. With 2019 projecting to be an even greater year for cruise, the aim is to ensure that onshore businesses deliver to international standards.
On May 7 and 8, 2019, two hundred and forty officers ranging from onshore businesses to the health sector, convened at the Bougainvillea Conference Room of the Bay Gardens Hotel. Under the guidance of Trainer and International Business Development Manager, Claudine Pohl of Aquila Center for Cruise Excellence, the officers participated in a training exercise which would grant them certification as frontline experts in customer service.
The training exercise catered to 120 participants on each day and was facilitated through the capacity-building avenue under the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) Customer Service and Frontline Training Initiative.
Aquila’s Center for Cruise Excellence offers training programmes in the areas of Tour Operator Excellence, Tour Guide Excellence, and Port Excellence, all designed to for cruise destinations around the world to achieve excellence in their ports, tours, guides and businesses. Aquila is highly respected within the cruise industry and has been named as one of the best tour operators in the world by cruise executives.
Pohl has varied roles in the Center for Cruise Excellence, which include leading workshops with tour operators, ports and destinations around the world, and she leads in the delivery of Aquila’s International Tour Guide Excellence Certification Program, ACE Tour Operator Designation and FCCA Customer Service and Front-Line Training.
Excellent customer service is an essential aspect of our tourism product and in an effort to ensure that best practices are adopted, following this training, frontline officers will be evaluated in their respective lines of duty.