By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net’

Spanish Wells’ chief councillor yesterday said it was a “great day for democracy” after a Cabinet minister said Crystal Cruises would look for an alternative port-of-call on its upcoming seven-night Bahamas cruises.

Robert Roberts told Tribune Business that while he was elated the cruise line had altered its plans, he did not want to discourage Crystal Cruises from exploring other opportunities. He reiterated, though, that opposition to being used as a ‘port of call’ stemmed from the fact Spanish Wells has worked for more than ten years to develop its own tourism niche that could be undermined by cruise ship passenger arrivals.

Mr Roberts added: “Central Eleuthera is kind of hard to get into if they were able to get into Governor’s Harbour. I don’t know if they could, but if they could it would open up a world of opportunity for their guests because if you go south from Governor’s Harbour you have the golf courses, and you have the Glass Window Bridge and other sights with restaurants and boutique stores.”

He spoke out after Dionsio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told another media house that the people of Spanish Wells “simply were not interested” in Crystal Cruises coming to their island.

The minister added: “We spoke to them, and this is the position they articulated to us, so we will look for another location either in Eleuthera or another island.”

Spanish Wells was selected by Crystal Cruises as an alternative to Harbour Island, which had itself previously rejected being chosen as a port-of-call on the cruise line’s seven night voyages around The Bahamas that are set to begin on July 3, using Nassau and Bimini as home ports. Exuma, San Salvador and Long Island have also been chosen as stops.

With the cruise line just under three weeks away from the initial sailing, it has again been left with having to fill a northern Bahamas void that was left first by Harbour Island, and now Spanish Wells.

Mr D’Aguilar, though, said the Spanish Wells situation will not delay Crystal Cruises’ plans as it already has Bimini, Long Island, Exuma and San Salvador “sorted” and it needs to add just one more stop. He promised to “move with haste to make that happen”.

Crystal Cruises earlier this week sought to reassure Spanish Wells residents that its passengers will not overwhelm the community during their weekly call, while also pledging that its vessel will not harm Egg Island’s environment.

Kevin Jones, chief strategy officer for Crystal’s parent, Genting Americas, and the cruise line’s corporate manager, told Tribune Business via an e-mailed response that the cruise line would transport passengers to the north Eleuthera community via “staggered” tenders that would be limited to “fewer than 100 people” so that the number of visitors to Spanish Wells would be restricted.

And, pledging that there will be no dredging to facilitate the Crystal Serenity anchoring at Egg Island, he said all the anchorage positions had been approved working in collaboration with local ports facilities teams.

“We are reiterating to stakeholders that there would be absolutely no dredging. Crystal Serenity is helmed by Captain Birger Vorland, a 17-year veteran of Crystal who has more than 45 years of mariner experience. The Captain and the bridge officers utilise electronic charts as well as local yachting charts, and would use radar and sonar technology to monitor our position at all times,” said Mr Jones.

As for passenger movements, he added: “Our plan would be to spread guests around the islands by staggering tour shore excursions’ departure times throughout the morning and afternoon, thus controlling the number of guests on the islands at any given time.

“Guests going ashore would be limited by the capacity and frequency of the tenders. Tenders would be limited to fewer than 100 people. We would never have two tenders ashore at the same time, and we would control the speed of the tender operations so there is a limited flow of guests arriving on an island at any given time.”