A few weeks after officials learned Carnival would be trimming
its calls to one in 2012, Holland America has announced that Veendam won't be
returning for the 2013 summer season.
"We will continue to call in
Hamilton occasionally on other itineraries," said
the line in a statement. "The 2012 season will mark three years of Bermuda
cruising roundtrip from New York and in 2013 other destinations are being
considered as part of our overall global deployment."
Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert is reported to have said
at a news conference that the "New York to Bermuda schedule was [apparently] not
meeting their revenue projections." Holland America denied the claim. "It really
goes back to the part of the statement concerning overall global deployment,
nothing further," said spokeswoman Mary Schimmelman.
Word of Holland America's departure comes just weeks after Bermudan
authorities discovered that Carnival Pride would be sailing its summer
2012 season in the Eastern Caribbean instead of Bermuda. Apparently, the tenant
forgot to tell the landlord. "Although quite some time ago we had requested
berths for several Bermuda calls in 2012," said spokesman Vance Gulliksen in an
e-mail on October 31, "we ultimately only scheduled one voyage. Therefore we did
not cancel any cruises that were actually scheduled and open for sale; however,
we did just recently notify the relevant people in Bermuda that we would not be
needing those slots." The line apologized to its partners in Bermuda for "not
advising them of this situation sooner." Princess Cruises has also yanked a ship
from Bermuda. After spending three years sailing to the destination, the
3,080-passenger Caribbean Princess is being redeployed to Europe in 2012.
While numbers in 2012 may be down significantly, the loss of ships may not be
the long-term blow to the industry that it appears. "We may lose some numbers on
the Veendam but gain some on another ship, so we may still have the same
numbers," said Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert during the news conference.
According to Bermuda's Department of Tourism, some 350,000 cruisers visited the
destination in 2010.
Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises will offer regular
Bermuda sailings in 2012, and Norwegian has already announced that its new
Norwegian Breakaway will debut in spring 2013 with a series of Bermuda cruises.
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