Although cruise and sea arrivals account for more than 70 per cent of visitors to the Bahamas, they spent a total of just $165 million in this nation during 2004, compared to $1.7 billion spent by stopover arrivals, it was revealed yesterday.
Carla Stuart, the Ministry of Tourism’s director of cruise development, yesterday said it was
Ministry encounters difficulties in getting information booths on cruise lines’ private islands
focusing on improving the visitor experiences of cruise visitors to the Bahamas, in the belief that this would help to attract them back as higher-spending stopover visitors.
She told a National Tourism Conference master class on transportation: “We hope that in the next fiscal year to aggressively pursue a cruise conversion plan.”
However, Ministry of Tourism operatives based in Abaco and Eleuthera indicated that this conversion plan could be hindered by the reluctance of the cruise lines to allow the Ministry to set up an information booth on their private islands.
The class heard how Disney Cruise Lines had declined to allow such a booth – seen as key in providing information to encourage cruise passengers to return as stopovers – to be set up on Castaway Cay in the Abacos, where it takes between 500,000 to 500,000 passengers annually.
In response, Mrs Stuart said that while the cruise lines were not opposed to this idea, there did “not see it fitting in with the experience they were trying to provide” through the private island experience.
She added that the Castaway Cay booth could be revisited in the future.
However, it was seen as a “key area to focus on” in the conversion process, as many passengers visiting the cruise lines’ private islands did not visit anywhere else in the Bahamas and were not aware they were in. this nation.
Despite the relatively low per capita spend compared to stopover visitors; cruise ship passengers were seen as vital in putting money into the hands of straw vendors and hair braiders, generating the money multiplier effect.
Mrs Stuart said Royal Caribbean Cruises was set to bring out its largest line of ships yet, the Ultra Voyageur class, in May 2006, with a maximum capacity of 4,360 passengers compared to the current maximum of 3,114.
She added that even now, on peak days Nassau Harbour could “hardly accommodate” the demand for cruise ship berths, with the Government continually asked to improve and enhance the docking facilities.
Mrs Stuart said: “In Nassau, the Ministry of Transport is really working aggressively to ensure there is an expansion of the turning basin that easily accommodates the new class of vessel.”
She added that the Ministry was “rather challenged in terms of getting new vessels into Grand Bahama” due to the island being perceived as an industrial zone.
The relocation of Grand Bahama’s cruise ship facilities to a new port was being examined, and the Ministry had spoken to three companies in Orlando about how to develop a port where the whole area around it was transformed to include timeshares, condo hotels and other amenities.
While the number of cruise ship calls on Grand Bahama had increased from 614 in 2003 to 652 in 2004, calls on Nassau had risen from 1020 to 1135 over the same period.
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor
