West End retailers yesterday claimed they were still experiencing challenges in boosting their sales despite having a cruise ship berthed in Dockyard for more days of the week than last season.

But non-retailers in the area disagreed and said they had seen evidence of increased business.

With a cruise ship in Dockyard nearly everyday now, the number of visitors who seek information at the Visitors' Service Bureau has more than doubled, operator Leonette Anderson told The Royal Gazette .

And several people who work in the area said they believed the retail sector was definitely prospering.

They added that they had seen visitors carrying bags of shopping to bus and ferry stops from the Clocktower Mall more often than last season.

But while Dockyard retailers agreed they were seeing many of their patrons travelling from Hamilton and St. George's, they said the passengers on the West End cruise ships were not spending.

Most passengers waited until just before they left the Island to spend their money, the retailers continued, so their busiest days were Saturday and Sunday.

And the lack of sales on other days resulted from a number of factors, they added.

One saleswoman said cruise ship passengers arrived in Dockyard to find buses waiting to transport them to other areas of the Island where they could spend their money.

But a jeweller, who did not wish to be named, said he believed that cruise ship passengers would not shop in Dockyard if they were encouraged to stay there because they were not the "high quality, high spending customers'' that travelled from the local hotels.

He said: "People off the cruise ships are just buying T-shirts and the like''.

Summer student Khomisha Lottimore, who is working at one of the stores in the Mall, said she believed cruisers were only buying items like T-shirts because they were older shoppers who were not interested in more expensive goods.

"I haven't seen an increase in customers since there have been cruise ships more days of the week,'' she continued.

"Anyway, the people on the ships are all older shoppers and they don't really buy anything'' she said.

However, Doris Rankin, a sales lady at Picturesque Gallery, said she had seen more people in the mall with the increase of cruise ship passengers.

Still, she added, visitors were not buying many of the pictures which were sold in the gallery.

She said selling ten pictures on Sunday was a lot for that store, but business looked better for other stores in the mall.

Another storekeeper, who did not wish to give her name, said she felt it was too early to say whether more frequent cruise ships had led to more sales in retail stores.

"I'm waiting until June'' she added.