When cruise passengers step ashore in Historic Falmouth Jamaica, beginning in 2009, they will engage past and future. The port town, a hub of commerce and culture in the Caribbean during the tumultuous 18th century, is undergoing an ambitious restoration and revitalization effort that will bring its history to life and immediately establish Historic Falmouth Jamaica as a state-of-the-art cruise destination.
The re-awakening also implies a look to the future. Historic Falmouth embodies the process in which the cruise industry, a government port authority, and an international vision planner and facilitator of branded destinations are collaborating to create this innovative 21st century port of call.
"We are introducing a new Jamaica, 250 years old," says Hugh Darley, president and executive producer of IDEA, Inc., the international design association advising The Port Authority of Jamaica and cruise industry partners. "Falmouth has an authenticity travelers crave," says Darley. "It holds keys to the histories not only of Jamaica and the Caribbean but also of Europe in the Americas."
Founded in 1769, in a time in which Jamaica led the world in sugar production, Falmouth was a thriving port with as many as 30 tall ships in his harbor. When steamships grew to dominate ocean commerce in the early 19th century, Falmouth suffered through an economic downturn that meant hard times for residents yet preserved almost intact the largest collection of Georgian buildings in the Caribbean. Those buildings, along with the 18th century organization of streets and public spaces, provide the bone structure for Historic Falmouth's emergence as a top cruiseline destination.
"Under the creation direction of IDEA," says John Tercek, vice president of new business development for Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., "Historic Falmouth Jamaica is destined to become the No. 1 cruise port in the Caribbean."
To bolster that ambition, The Port Authority is investing some $100 million in waterside and pier improvements to provide docking for the Genesis-class vessel. "The development of Falmouth as a cruise port is one of the most significant and ambitious projects ever undertaken by The Port Authority of Jamaica," says William Tatham, vice president of Cruise Shipping and Marina Operations for the Authority. "There will be few cruise ports in the world that will be able to offer such a complete mixture of history, culture, education, and adventure all mixed into one. The bar has certainly been lifted."