POINTE BLANCHE:--- Port St. Maarten is being represented this week at the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) PAMAC meeting in New Orleans. PAMAC brings together Platinum Members of the FCCA who meet with over 30 high-ranking FCCA Member Line cruise executives as part of a relationship and business building process.
PAMAC opened with a welcome reception on Wednesday evening and thereafter a series of meetings and networking events are planned to discuss industry trends and standards and develop relationships and mutual benefits for the cruise lines and members’, companies and destinations.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Mingo and Government Relations Liaison Bertrand Peters are attending the New Orleans meeting.
“Reinventing Cruise St. Maarten is an on-going process. We are attending PAMAC in order to ensure and attract additional cruise business for the country. It’s an opportunity to inform and to grow our cruise numbers. We are not sitting by for a handout, we are being proactive.
“We are sitting down and discussing with the cruise industry’s most influential decision makers. We want to foster mutual growth. It’s an opportunity to network and better understand each other especially when we look at the different developments. The cruise industry is never stagnant. It’s innovative, and we have to be there to grow and improve,” CEO Mark Mingo said on Wednesday.
The PAMAC event is one of many that the FCCA coordinates for its Platinum Members and Member Lines to stay at the forefront of information about both the industry and destinations while finding ways to maximize the benefits for all.
The FCCA is a not-for-profit trade organization composed of 19 Member Lines operating over 100 vessels in Floridian, Caribbean and Latin American waters. Created in 1972, the FCCA’s mandate is to provide a forum for discussion on tourism development, ports, safety, security, and other cruise industry issue and to develop bilateral relationships with destinations’ private and public sectors. By fostering an understanding of the cruise industry and its operating practices, the FCCA works with governments, ports and private sector representatives to maximize cruise passenger, crew and cruise line spending, as well as enhance the destination experience and increase the amount of cruise passengers returning as stay-over visitors.
The Port St. Maarten delegation left the island on Tuesday and will return over the weekend. The PAMAC conference is taking place at the Harrah’s New Orleans Hotel.