Last week we learned that Tahiti’s occupancy numbers were down 20 percent. Now we learn  that Star Clippers cruise ship the Star Flyer will cease sail out of Tahiti next year. This represents a loss of about 7,000 visitors and 7,000 tickets for Air Tahiti Nui annually.

This has inspired Tahiti’s new tourism minister, Jacqui Drollet, to call for the country to enter the cruise ship business by acquiring its own vessel.

"The ships are leaving us one after the other," said Drollet said, referring to December's departure of the 670-passenger Tahitian Princess, which had been based in Papeete since December 2002.

The loss of the Tahitian Princess and the Star Flyer leaves one foreign-flag cruise ship based in Papeete for regular cruises— the 330-passenger M/S Paul Gauguin, which celebrated its 10th anniversary of cruising in French Polynesia early last year.

In 2008, the cruise ship sector started out strong for Tahiti and then fizzled. Overall, 2008 posted a gain of 1.7 percent over 2007, but December produced 2,937 cruise ship passengers, a drop of 734, or 20 percent. The cruise ship sector accounted for 22 percent of all Tahiti's tourists last year, so this downward trend is critical for the country.