By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Royal Caribbean’s top executive has refuted arguments that the cruise industry’s reliance on its Bahamian private islands is hurting Nassau, adding that there are “opportunities’” to improve the latter’s product.

Michael Bayley, Royal Caribbean International’s president and chief executive, said: “There are elements that need to be developed in terms of the guest experience. I would say that in Nassau, as there are in all destinations, there are opportunities.

“I think those opportunities can be best developed from more partnerships between the tourism industry, the Bahamian people, the local community and the cruise companies because together we can really develop the experience.

“I think that is something we are interested in doing; the development of the overall experience, providing insights that can help accelerate that development. I think that is something all of the cruise companies and I would image the Bahamian community itself would like to see.”

Mr Bayley added: “There is opportunity to improve always the spend of tourists when they come to a destination. You improve spend by providing services, products and experience that customers are more than happy to pay for. You have to do the market research, understand what the customers are expecting and looking for.

“You have to understand the competitive environment. When people come to one destination, they go to multiple destinations. People experience products and services in different ways, and the opportunity - regardless of what the number is - is more about how can you improve. We do have good ideas, I think, in terms of how to deliver great experiences.”

Mr Bayley said that as the cruise line re-routes more ships to the Caribbean, The Bahamas stands to benefit. “The ships that call into our private islands typically are calling in to Nassau. For example, the vast number of our customers come on what we call the shore product, which is the three-four day cruises,” he added.

“The three to four day cruises are Coco Cay and Nassau. Therefore, when we are coming to Coco Cay we are coming to Nassau. The numbers of guests that we bring to Nassau, if you look over time, has increased every single year.

“As we we reroute more of our fleet in the Caribbean to go to Coco Cay, we are also re-routing those ships to come to Nassau. We will see more tourists coming to The Bahamas, and our projections for 2020 are anywhere from two million to 1.75 million tourists that we will be bringing to The Bahamas. We think it’a a win-win.”