Our shore excursions team has worked with tour operators to identify excursions founded on strong sustainability principles. Known as ‘Protectours’, these excursions are specifically designed to educate our guests. Around 70% of these tours include low impact transportation, including walking, cycling or kayaking, and many make a direct contribution to the environment through supporting species or habitat protection.

We partnered with Travelife to deliver training and capacity building for all the tour operators we work with. Travelife is an initiative for tourism companies committed to achieving sustainability: its specialised indicators, based on the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s Industry Standard criteria, focus on supply chain impact and the responsibilities of tour operators.

The development of accessible tours also remains a priority, with the aim of ensuring that we offer guests with limited mobility a range of options at each destination. All our ‘Easy & Accessible’ tours aim to eliminate obstacles and ensure smooth access to all the highlights visited.

We transformed Ocean Cay from an abandoned industrial facility to a pristine destination, creating a remote, natural desert island experience for our cruise guests. Despite the challenges, the benefits of our environmentally sensitive development became apparent, as the biodiversity increased in both the water, on land and in the air.

Thanks to our efforts there has been an increase in avian wildlife and the return of many bird species, including breeding pairs, as well as an increase in migrating populations. Waterbirds including herons, egrets and oystercatchers and are now frequently spotted and there have also been occasional sightings of birds of prey, including osprey and kestrels.

The waters around Ocean Cay are designated as a Marine Protected Area (MPA) which means commercial fishing is restricted and other measures are in place to protect and enhance biodiversity. Our efforts to remove significant quantities of scrap metal waste from the waters around the island has resulted in dramatic improvements in the local ecology and marine life has become more diverse. Now sea turtle sightings are common.

We monitor the coral of the island and have seen increased productivity with numerous species recorded including grunts, jacks, hogfish, angel fish lobsters, crabs, shrimps and moray eels – a positive indication of a healthy reef.

Visit the Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve website.