A quick look at how they run their island stops will show you that the cruise lines have cut the Bahamian out. Just look at who is running the places.

Another example of selling our Bahamaland to the detriment of Bahamians. Tribune, your readers would, I am sure, love to see Prime Minister Minnis's response to that letter.

Wow!!

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2017…

This is the reason I have said time and time again that we should do long term leases on private islands instead. We should never, ever sell our islands no matter how attractive the investment. If there is an end date to the lease, it will force them to come back to the table. They must also be made to respect the natural resources on the islands and forbid dredging, etc.

Successive PLP and FNM administrations cut sweet deals for themselves with cruise ship companies against the interest of the Bahamas and Bahamians as did every other country in the region! What have we gained?

CARICOM group of **D-U-M-B I-D-I-O-T-S** are just now beginning to recognize that big business and the cruise ship industry saw CSME as a threat. They clandestinely undermined and literally stole the Caribbean tourism industry from them and replaced regional hotel rooms with mega cruise ships, operating with huge passenger volumes. Selling Caribbean destinations at a fraction of the cost of resort hotels, eroding jobs and hotel resort developments.

These **D-U-M-B CARICOM M-O-N-K-E-Y-S** "leading the Caribbean diaspora" also never connected the dots, relationship, and consequences of WTO (which they had no say in creating and have no say in regulating), to the cruise ship industry! What have they gained from joining WTO?

**F-O-O-L-S!** How the hell could so many so-called "intelligent men" wholesale sign onto an agreement which they had no input in creating, have no arbitration powers and Gave AWAY SO MUCH CONTROL in exchange for getting along with new foreign slave masters?

The Bahamas and our sister Caribbean countries had better sit down together FAST and begin drafting concise regional regulations for the cruise ship industry before we are completely stripped of tourism! The region MUST address WTO and the cruise ship industry with ONE VOICE.

The cruise ship industry should firstly be regulated to a maximum amount of passengers they could bring into the region to PROTECT indigenous resort developments. Secondly, cruise ship operators should not be allowed to control destination inland excursions. Let them take their mega ships somewhere else!!!

This stupidity must stop before the Caribbean diaspora find ourselves and our countries as mere spectators, while big foreign corporations TAKE what the **D-U-M-B CARICOM M-O-N-K-E-Y-S** were supposed to be guarding!...... **"To promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, to ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate foreign policy**........TOTAL FAILURE TO DATE!

The problem is that the cruise lines own everything. Even if Bahamians owned the retail business the cruise lines will take all the profits through the lease over the shop space (so much for rent + x% of the gross income or y% of the net profit. Either way the Bahamian loses and the cruise line wins big.

Good point. The only solution is to kick the cruise industry in its entirety out of the Bahamas. Then all tourism will be on land and in hotels. If tourists want to see the Bahamas they must play by Bahamas rules.