

The new itinerary (first-time for Crystal Cruises) included as destinations Barbados (Bridgetown), St Lucia (Castries), Trinidad (Port-of-Spain), St Maarten (Philipsburg), BVI Tortola (Road Town). Carnival's decision would have resulted in heavy losses to the island's economy (millions of dollars) and would have affected not only the cruise port but also local tour operators, vendors, and other tourism-related businesses.įollowing the Coronavirus crisis, in mid-April 2021, Crystal Cruises announced that Crystal Symphony ship's entire 2021 program in Europe-Mediterranean (June 6 through December 21) is canceled and replaced with 10-night "Luxury Caribbean Escapes" (roundtrip itineraries from St Johns Antigua) scheduled for the period Aug 5 through Dec 23, 2021. Both parties signed a non-disclosure agreement preventing them from divulging information to the public. However, in April, Antigua and Barbuda's Government managed to convince the company to reverse its decision (to cancel all scheduled calls to Antigua and Barbuda) planned for 4 liners - Breeze, Legend, Pride, Magic. In mid-March 2019, CCL-Carnival updated its website removing all scheduled voyages to Antigua (St Johns) from November 2019 onwards. GPH also handles cruise vessels anchoring close to Falmouth Harbour. Part of the deal was that GPH will invest in improving the port's current retail shops and construct new retail and food-beverage facilities. A similar deal GPH signed with Cuba (for Port Havana) in 2018.

In February 2019, GPH (Global Ports Holding / 2004-founded, UK-based company, world's largest cruise port operator) signed a 30-year exclusive concession deal with Antigua and Barbuda for cruise port management and retail shopping operations. Besides tourism, another major industry is investment banking - some of the world's largest financial institutions have offices here. World-class celebrities (including Oprah Winfrey, Eric Clapton, Giorgio Armani) own private residences on the island. Other best-known tourist attractions include city's skyline (dominated by St Johns Cathedral), Botanical Garden, St John's Light (harbor's lighthouse), Fort James (at harbour's entrance), Fort Charles, Fort George, Fort Berkeley, Fort Barrington, Fort Shirley, Government House (19th-century residence building), large shopping malls and boutiques (selling top-fashion clothing and designer jewellery), museums, natural beauty, premium resorts. Tourists (passengers and crew) disembarking cruise vessels docked in St John's Harbour are handled at the terminals Redcliffe Quay and Heritage Quay.Īntigua Rum Distillery (at Citadel) has an annual bottling capacity of 180,000+ gallons. Major cruise companies (including RCI-Royal Caribbean, CCL-Carnival, DCL-Disney, Celebrity, Princess, and NCL-Norwegian) visit St John's as port of call in their roundtrip itineraries operated by USA-homeported ships. Port St Johns (locode CASJF) has a deepwater harbour and capacity to handle the world's largest passenger liners. St John's is also the country's commercial center and principal/main seaport.


Located on Antigua Island's northwestern coast, the town has land area approx 10 km2 (4 mi2) and population around 22,000. St Johns is a port town located in the West Indies (Leeward Islands, Caribbean Sea) as well as the capital city of Antigua and Barbuda.
