Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The American Samoa Visitors Bureau (ASVB) announced this week that all interested cruise ship tour operators, retailers, food sellers and service industry providers must sign up by Jan. 17 at the ASVB office, to be registered into its system.

“Only vendors who sign up at our office will be allowed to participate in their assigned zones when the first cruise ship arrives on January 20, 2023,” ASVB said in a brief statement, and noted that American Samoa is tentatively expecting 21 cruise ships throughout 2023.

The initial cruise ship schedule released recently during an industry cruise ship vendors meeting shows 20 vessels calling into the Port of Pago Pago this year, with the “Celebrity Eclipse”, the first vessel arriving on Jan. 20.

The ASVB has since updated the cruise ship tentative schedule on its website (www.americansamoa.travel) and is now showing 21 ships for 2023. It also announced that the ‘Disney Wonder’ cruise ship with the Disney Cruise Line, “will be making a maiden voyage” to Pago Pago on Oct. 19. The month of October now has 5 cruise ships visiting Pago Pago.

“Pago Pago Harbor is a regular stopover for cruise lines either on around -the-world voyages or seasonal repositioning cruises to Australia, North American and Asia,” according to ASVB.

Local businesses and others in the industry are all looking forward to the return of cruise ships to the territory, after nearly three-years when borders were closed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

For more information on cruise ship schedules call ASVB at 633-9805 or email (info@americansamoa.travel). The ASVB office is located on the ground floor — facing the parking lot — of the Tedi of Samoa building in Fagatogo.