Cruise Ship Charters Provide Supplemental Housing for Summit of the Americas in Trinidad

[mercedes]

This past week, leaders of the 34 countries that are members of the Organization of American States (OAS) gathered on the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, to take part in the Fifth Summit of the Americas. This major international political event, which focuses on economical, social and political development of the region, attracted more than 5,000 visitors including heads of state, members of the media and other dignitaries including President Barack Obama, and representatives from North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

Trinidad and Tobago was the first Caribbean nation to host the summit. In order to supplement the 1,700 existing hotel rooms in Port of Spain, the National Secretariat of Trinidad and Tobago engaged the services of Miami-based Landry & Kling to arrange for dockside ship charters to house thousands of guests.

Landry & Kling brought in two cruise ships, the Carnival Victory and Caribbean Princess, to provide close to 3,000 rooms for the event. Increasingly, dockside charters like these have become vital for booking large-scale conferences and global events in regions where demand for accommodations outstrips supply.

Aside from fulfilling the immediate need for guest rooms, Landry & Kling's CEO Joyce Landry says, "The ships are ideally located just steps away from the center of summit activity, docked in downtown Port of Spain. Because of this, both ships were used for pre-summit and parallel events, including breakfast/lunch meetings and plenary sessions. The ships provided needed venues for private sector events for 400 to over 1,000 people for the opening ceremony reception." The vessels had business centers which were used by media and the various delegations accommodated onboard. The ships' restaurants also served meals to staff and volunteers on a daily basis.

Both ships were docked adjacent to the Hyatt Hotel and a short distance from the Summit Village, which was a main gathering spot for delegates and special guests. Landry says the per-room cost is comparable to any hotel in Port of Spain -- plus, the ships include meals and services that would be charged as extras in a hotel.

An important factor is for the ships to be a self-liquidating expense in the summit budget. As a cost recovery initiative, both ships set sail at the conclusion of the summit on 4-day cruises with all revenues going to the government to defray the cost of deploying the vessels to Trinidad for the Summit. The Carnival Victory will re-position to Barbados and cruise from there to Antigua and St. Maarten. The Caribbean Princess will sail from Port of Spain, Trinidad and cruise to Curacao and Margarita Island, Venezuela. These cruises have been offered to local residents, and were quickly sold out.