D'Aguilar is an arse. Just look at how he tip toes when alluding to, rather than forthrightly discussing, the ruthlessly greedy business practices of the cruise ship industry. He knows full well that the entire business model of the cruise ship industry is premised on the fact that their passengers have only so much money that they've budgeted to spend, and are willing to spend, on a vacation cruise. That means the less our local businesses and economy get from their passengers, the more their passengers have to spend at competing shops and attractions on board their ships and at their 'all-inclusive' island resorts.

Meanwhile these monstrous floating hotels litter our territorial waters with their trash, oil based contaminants and shiit dumping, not to mention the destruction of our coral reefs and the air pollution from their smoke stacks. And let's not forget these filthy cruise ships are gargantuan incubators for all kinds of very harmful germs and viruses. Our tourism industry must be land based and not sea based as evidenced by the fact that the ruthlessly greedy cruise ship industry has for decades now been sucking the life blood out of our local economy, resulting in our once lively and dynamic Bay Street shopping district being turned into the 'dead zone' of cheap T-shirt and trinket shops that it is today. And this all started happening long before the Communist China Virus came to town.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation needs to come to the reality that the cruise ship industry was never designed to even minimally benefit the profits of resort destinations. They're cutthroat, prohibitive, policies are deliberately designed to maximize their own profits at the expense of destinations they visit.

The cruise industry is actually wholesale travel companies. They sell cruises at give-away prices with the intention of profiting from various passenger-based profit centers i.e. in-resort excursion commissions which actually account for a major percentage of their profits. They will be hard-pressed to change their modes Operandi because of their present structure to profits.

The Bahamas needs to follow the Cayman Islands lead and place restrictions on the volume of ships/passengers allowed in port at any given time. If Nassau's tourism infrastructure cannot cater to 10,000 cruise passengers at once, what is the point of having them come here? The result could only be complaints of not enough to do, overcrowding, poor management, etc.

Curtailing the volume of cruise passengers will lead to more shore-based vacations, higher in-resort spending, more satisfied visitors, increased excursion sales & opportunities, and a much better overall bottom line for the country.

Additionally, having Bahamasair at our disposal, the Bahamas should have long ago partnered with hotels to develop its own wholesale products.

The biggest impediment to tourism growth in our country is spineless individuals with no clue about tourism ignorantly cutting deals with very slick cruise ship pirates and for decades people with power lacking the hands-on experience needed to enable them to be innovative in the market making decisions.

Your last paragraph sums up the grossly incompetent D'Aguilar to the very 'T'. D'Aguilar has certainly proven himself to be a totally useless and worthless cabinet minister. He really should just stick to running the simple laundromat business his father Vince started for him years ago.

On the contrary, Dionisio D’Aguilar having been involved in the hotel industry is probably the only individual we've had as minister of tourism that has some level of hands on experience and does have a clue! Unfortunately, he inherited 5 decades of asinine stupidity from predecessors that spoiled the cruise industry by allowing them to believe that the Bahamas could not survive without them. The truth is the cruise industry cannot survive without the Bahamas and other resort destinations.

This is another classic example of the proverbial "tail wagging the dog" situation common in the region when dealing with corporate entities.

Can only assume you're referring to the ownership interest his father had in the old Dolphin Hotel at the corner of Nassau Street and West Bay Street. Really?! LMAO

**Whilst Dioniso James with tail between his legs,** insists to beg the cruise liners to sail back into the colony's ports, it might not be such a bad idea to **think out** the most survivable of the 1200 Out Islands, Cays, and Rocks, that would be best be on to survive a **2021 'zombie apocalypse'*?
**My Comrades, whilst I'm no Nostradamus** but this is much too wild stuff just be making up when to have a hope to survive **the CDC says.** you'll need to start preparing an emergency 2021 survival kit. **Yes?**

do you realize that hungry homeless people covered in tattered dirty clothing can look very similar to the classic pictorial of zombies? Especially if a car with clean, freshly clothed people and overflowing with food supplies turns into their neighbourhood. We could learn alot from the movies. The gates never protect civilization. Will Smith had it right, search for the cure.

We cant tell them anytjing. We.need them kow more than ever.you tell them not to dump.

Where is the discussion about would the Bahamas be better off without a cruise industry where tourists instead all visited with land based hotel stays? Once you take this aspect of the issue off the table, all is basically lost.

How is partnership possible with an industry specifically designed around the notion of putting itself above all meaningful regulation by any state? It specifically is designed to grow and push aside the power of national governments to regulate or tax it.

In this respect it is not like a hotel operator the Bahamas can truely partner with. The more the cruise industry grows the more the power of the Bahamas to shape its own destiny reduces.

10,000 daily passengers and how does the Bahamas make money off them? Simple, ban the cruise ships, and 2,000 or so of them will visit as hotel guests producing vastly higher revenue to the Bahamas. Wow, wish all problems were this easy to solve. Then we can skip cruise line critiques of Nassau.

Amen!

I am an American cruiser, who would like to comment on the recent Carnival Cruise Line Excursions Executives Comments
about the Nassau Port Offerings.

My first few visits to you're lovely Island City, I did do the typical things, Visited Ardastra Gardens, Toured Atlantis,
Took a glass bottomed boat tour, The Pirate Museum, The Forts, The Queens Staircase, A Horse drawn carriage tour,
Water Taxi, City Bus Tour, The Straw Market, and all the typical stuff (So I know of which I speak.)

Most cruise passengers upon there first visit there, hit one or two of these things each visit,
but after about there 3'rd visit kind of get the attitude of
"Already Been There, Done That, Don't need to get off the ship, and do it again.".

Not everybody does this, I'd say about 75 percent of Repeat cruisers still get off the ship and walk into Nassau,
but after a visit or two, they do quit taking paid excursions. (Why, because the cruise lines charge way too much for them on the ship, ...
and as for why they don't take paid excursions from vendors that approach them off the ship is because the cruise lines have scared
them with stories of people getting scammed when booking their own excursions.)

First lets do some basic math, ....

I would say even a typical repeat cruise visitor, even a cheep skate American "Carnival Cruiser" who's been to Nassau
still contributes to your economy.

Maybe they don't have the $1,000 a day spend of an overnight guest, but here is an average break down, of a repeat cruiser on a Nassau
day visit, ......

Get off ship, ...... Find a local Bar, either Bay Street, or Senor Frogs, Junkanoo Beach etc. $10-20 bucks in cheep beers and specials,
maybe rent a beach chair, $5 Probably grab a quick Ice Cream, Conch Fritters, or other lite lunch, so another $5-$15
then swing by the Straw Market or Other street vendor or shop for a few small souvenirs, so say about average of another $20 each.
then back to the ship.

so as you can see, you're right repeat cruise visitors don't splurge for taxis, excursions or high end things.

But here's the math, .....

and I'll do it conservatively, ....

There are days with as many as six ships in port, with multiple thousands of passengers, so real numbers are much higher.

But let's just for example say one ship a day x 365 days a year, and let's say it holds 3,000 passengers, and only 2,000
of them get off the ship, and each speed a average of even just $40.00 each in Nassau, .....

That's still $80.000 in a day!

and $29.200.000 in a year!!!

and that is at a conservative 2000, very cheep skate passengers a day, and
not the reality of real passenger numbers,
or number of ships, or those who do buy excursions, visit casinos, or spend much more shopping and dining.