Global Ports Holding engages key cruise and tourism industry stakeholders in St. Lucia

(Global Ports Holding)- Executives of Global Ports Holding (GPH) participated in several government-endorsed stakeholder meetings last week to discuss community benefits and opportunities available for collaboration through the highly anticipated St Lucia Cruise Port project. The partnership between the government and GPH includes a 30-year concession agreement for cruise-related operations at Castries and Soufriere Bay.

“We’re extremely excited to work with key stakeholders across the Saint Lucian cruise and tourism sectors, said Colin Murphy, GPH Head of Business Development, Americas. “We have received such a warm welcome and very positive responses from the groups we’ve spoken to. We recognize that establishing strong relationships with key stakeholders is a critical part of ensuring that this partnership is successful for everyone, which is why we made having these conversations our immediate priority after signing the MoU.”

This week, Mr. Murphy, and Dr. Sean Matthews, GPH Business Development Advisor, met with executives of the Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority; tour operators including Cox and Company St. Lucia; Brian Louisy, Executive Director of the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture; executives of the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association; and the leadership of Invest Saint Lucia. The duo also began brief interactions with taxi drivers.

“Over the last few days, we’ve shared our ideas and received great feedback about the needs and wants of the community and the things that we need to consider,” Murphy explained. “We know that there is a lot of work to do, but we also know that we can’t do it alone. Your success is our success, and recognizing that, everyone’s voice is important. There are many seats at this table.”

Dr. Matthews added that “This series of meetings marks the beginning of our community outreach efforts. Our goal is to keep the lines of communication open so that we can all work together to achieve our collective mission – to bring more cruise passengers and more opportunity to St. Lucia to benefit our community and all involved in this effort. We need everyone’s participation to make this happen.”