By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor THE $44 million Nassau Harbour dredging costs will be paid back in full within one-and-a-half years in taxes alone, the minister of tourism yesterday telling Tribune Business that any impact on the Bahamas' cruise business as a result of the disaster in Italy would be brief - if at all. Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace said the harbour dredging's impact had "exceeded all expectations" in terms of the extra passengers generated through the world's largest cruise ships now being able to dock in Nassau. Explaining that the Government was only looking at the "incremental revenues" generated from the extra cruise passengers when trying to measure whether the Bahamas had gained a return on its investment, the minister said: "When we take into consideration the $3 increase on all cruise passengers beginning in October 2010, and the total taxes paid by incremental visitors brought on the ships that could not come to the port of Nassau before the dredging, the dredging cost of $44 million is paid back in 1.5 years from taxes alone. T "This does not take into consideration the visitor spending by those incremental cruise passengers that arrived on the larger ships." And he added: "It's [the harbour dredging] not paid for as yet. But there's no question that it has exceeded our expectations. It has achieved an incredible return on investment." Asked whether the disaster involving the Costa Concordia cruise ship, where the death toll continues to rise, off the Italian coast would impact cruise passenger bookings to the Bahamas, Mr Vanderpool-Wallace said the issue had not even been raised in his subsequent discussions with the cruise lines. "None whatsoever," he told Tribune Business, when asked if the disaster had impacted the Bahamas' cruise business to-date. "The early assessments of what happened show considerable error, and this route is fairly new. Cruises coming to and through the Bahamas have been doing so for decades," he added. "I will tell you that it is one of those seminal events. You will get effects for a brief period of time, if any, and then it will disappear. It is such a rare event. Looking at it, we don't think there will be an impact, but if so it will be brief, and then go back to normal."