 Podcastries continues to be busy with cruise ship activity as three mega ships were birthed there on Saturday, the 29th of December 2018. The economic spinoffs are nothing but tremendous, I've just come from visiting Point Seraphine and you know everyone is selling. It's good to see that the taxi drivers are making trips as well and I think this is the beginning of the success that we can have as a destination if we do cruise tourism right. On Friday there were five ships in the harbour and indication of a strong winter season for the cruise sector. Minister Fede says the ultimate objective is for the economic benefits of cruise tourism to be felt through every sector in community. To this end, government is undertaking a study aimed at improving revenue flows. We want to make sure that small business people, vendors, taxi drivers, shop owners that everyone can feel the tourism dollar. We have actually done a lot of training already to this end. Efforts have begun to help all sectors maximise returns from cruise tourism. Over 150 vendors have been trained in sales technique and product development. With the industry reporting a 13% growth over the last year, government is advancing plans to further decentralise the benefits of cruise protein. So taking a port to view for it is very critical in that it helps to decentralise the tourism dollar and it helps to get a lot more St Lucia's involved into the activity. What it also does quite importantly is that it makes St Lucia a competitive home port destination and when we look at what is taking place in the Caribbean we see that very few destinations can boast that they have a cruise port and a home port and airport facility in such close proximity. A record setting 800,000 cruise passengers are expected to visit the island this cruise season which runs from November 2018 to May 2019. From the government information service, I am Anisia Antoine reporting.