The Bermuda Government is looking into several options to get cruise ships to St George’s without widening Town Cut.

Speaking at a town-hall meeting, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Tourism Development and Transport, Francis Richardson, said that finding smaller cruise ships to service the East End is difficult, but the Government is considering alternatives.

“Next year, in 2016, we will have five visits. And for 2017, so far there are five confirmed,” he said. “Also in 2017 we are in discussions with NCL to have one of their smaller cruise ships chartered for the entire month of June for the America’s Cup event berthed right here in St George’s.

“In spite of our best efforts, there are a limited number of cruise ships that can even pull into St George’s. The ministry, with the assistance of the BTA (Bermuda Tourism Authority), continuously encourages our cruise partners to consider St George’s as part of their itinerary plan. Also some which we don’t have particularly strong partnerships with. We are encouraging them, but it’s not easy-going.

“Because of those challenges, the department has now really started to focus on prioritising finding a solution for St George’s. We know that Town Cut is certainly an emotive issue for St George’s, and there are proponents and opponents of those options, but there are tangible options that can be utilised in St George’s.

“We have looked at locations along the north shore of St George’s, close to Murray’s Anchorage. There is also another contender towards the eastern side.”

He added that the ministry is now in advanced discussion about the possible options and he hopes to be able to provide more details and a decision in the future. Asked for more details, he noted a 2008 study that investigated the possibility of erecting a cruise ship pier near Murray’s Anchorage, reaching out from the St George’s Golf Course.

Members of the public fired a host of questions about the proposals, including asking whether the Government had considered implementing guarantees with the cruise ships in the same way that guarantees are issued for airlines to encourage smaller ships to the Island or if they had looked beyond their usual partners.

Mr Richardson responded that staff at the Ministry and BTA have been looking everywhere, leading to the visits scheduled for the next two years.

“We thought we were very close a few weeks ago to having a ship here for more than ten calls, but it didn’t work out,” he said. They also asked if tendering passengers from a ship moored outside Town Cut would be feasible, but Mr Richardson said such measures sparked complaints when attempted with the Veendam in 2012.

“That’s something that still takes place on occasion, but it’s not an ideal situation and most cruise lines don’t like to tender and the East End does present challenges,” he said. “Sometimes there are challenges getting passengers from the ship to the tender.”

While one member of the audience called on Government to dredge Town Cut while the dredging equipment is in Bermuda, Mr Richardson said it was not on the cards as there is very little sediment in the cut.