Duty-Free Shop Opens in Dockyard
On Saturday [Apr.2], Minister of Transport Terry Lister; Chairman of the West End Development Corporation (Wedco) Walter Lister; and Captain of the Queen Victoria Christopher Rynd, officially opened the Heritage Wharf Shopping & Duty Free at Dockyard in a ribbon-cutting ceremony. It is the only duty-free shop operated at a seaport in Bermuda.
Also in attendance were Ellen Kate-Horton, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transport; Larry Jacobs, Transportation Consultant; Ian Macintyre, Policy Analyst at the Ministry of Transport; Andrew Dias, General Manager of Wedco; and shop owner Carole Holding.
Heritage Wharf houses port security and H.M. Customs for cruise ship passengers disembarking and embarking on this arm as well as a gift and duty-free shop run by retailer Carole Holding. The shop sells items with her popular paintings such as bone-china mugs, placemats, chopping boards and tea trays. The shop also sells a selection of duty-free liquor.
Heritage Wharf Shopping & Duty Free opened during the 2010 cruise season; however, it was officially opened on Saturday on the occasion of the first cruise ship arriving at Dockyard for the 2011 season.
Walter Lister, Chairman of WEDCO, says: “The addition of a second cruise ship to Dockyard is a great benefit to the retailers and restaurants at Dockyard. We were very pleased to welcome the Queen Victoria to Bermuda on Saturday and we look forward to additional visits from other cruise ship lines this summer.”
Retailer Carole Holding says: “It was exciting to see the first cruise ship passengers of the season arrive at Heritage Wharf on Saturday. Some of them watched our ribbon-cutting ceremony and others stayed behind to taste some Gosling’s Black Seal rum following the event. We’re looking forward to a busy cruise-ship season and to welcoming other tourists to Bermuda this summer.”
In the year 2011 – I don’t know whether to offer congratulations or to cringe! Seriously? Where was Bermuda when other jurisdictions in the world were opening up duty free stores??? Sometimes I think we are so advanced that we are retarded in the most basic things…
At the risk of starting a firestorm, yet another initiative started by Dr. Brown and for which this Administration is taking the credit.Why did it take so long? Ask the person who has been in charge of HM Customs since 2004 and is now the leader of your country. Fact.
Can someone explain what duty free really means. Will the prices of goods in this so called ‘duty free’ shop be different from Carole Holdings’s Hamilton store. Duty free would mean they should be significantly lower and our tourists would be happy to buy. If it is duty free will the goods be sold and then delivered to the ships gangway an hour before departure. I dont think so. Will the goods that are not sold be kept in bond. What safeguards are in place to prevent these ‘duty free’ goods from re-entering Bermuda whilst a ship is in port for three days – none- because it is not really a duty free store. The only benifits of duty free are realised by the owner who can import materials for locally made goods ‘duty free’. The only real duty free store in Bermuda is at the airport which is run by Goslings. The alcohol is in bond and no duty paid so that is why it is deemed duty free because it is not sold in the local market. Maybe Bermy News should compare.
Puerto Rico Tourism needs to thank (Carole Holding, pictured) in connection with the opening of the brand new duty free facility. We just returned from our 17h visit to the island and recalled her name in connection with the promotion of Bacardi rum cakes we saw there. We went expecting to find Horton’s(Bermuda)rum cakes that we buy each time we visit. Having tried every company’s version of rum cake we feel there is nothing that comes close to Horton’s in any respect but it wasn’t for sale at duty free.
We could not help but wonder why a new facility would not feature all of Bermuda’s best products in every category. I found it odd particularly in this economy that a product with Puerto Rican rum would be allowed to dominate at a shopping area created for visitors and where your country’s best rum cakes are not even being sold! We did see Horton’s at other shops but decided to wait to get them duty free. Sadly we ran out of time and had to leave Bermuda empty handed.
It is strange and not a situation likely to happen in reverse. Can you imagine Puerto Rico or any other competing destination allowing Bermuda themed products to dominate their country’s own products? Highly unlikely!
Hopefully the situation will be rectified quickly because it reflects rather poorly on the judgment of management whose aim it should be to offer a collective of Bermuda’s best products to showcase for the convenience of visitors who expect to be offered the full range of choices.
Bermuda is lovely but it is indeed ‘another world’.