By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas will gain a $270m economic boost if it elevates per capita cruise passenger spending in line with regional highs, as Nassau Cruise Port’s top executive asserted: “It’s not impossible. Others are doing it.”

Michael Maura, the Prince George Wharf operator’s chief executive, told Tribune Business this dollar figure is the extra economic impact that The Bahamas can generate from the six million cruise passengers projected to visit Nassau in 2025 if this nation can increase their average expenditure per head by $45 to match the US Virgin Islands.

Reiterating that this demands The Bahamas be “creative, innovative and unique” with the tours, excursions and amenities/attractions it offers to visitors, he argued that the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association’s (FCCA) recent study had exposed “a real opportunity” for this nation to extract an even greater economic impact from the sector.

The FCCA, which represents the major cruise lines such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean, in its first post-COVID study of the sector’s economic impact on the Caribbean and Latin America unveiled several concerning findings for The Bahamas including an 8 percent reduction in per capita spending by passengers compared to their average outlay six years ago in 2018.

Mr Maura conceded that some of the survey rankings for The Bahamas, such as the slippage in how likely cruise passengers were to return as high-spending hotel guests and stopover visitors, was “disappointing” especially given the $300m-plus investment in upgrading Nassau Cruise Port.

But, while agreeing that “we would have liked to have seen better ratings”, he added he was not viewing the FCCA study’s findings “as a negative, but as an opportunity” for The Bahamas to effect the necessary tourism product and other improvements that will increase visitor spending and get the 19 percent of passengers who remain on board while in port off the vessel.

Suggesting that the US Virgin Islands, which enjoys an average cruise visitor spend of $166.22 per head, is “a more reasonable and comparative” target for The Bahamas to aim at, Mr Maura said eliminating the $45 gap between it and this nation would inject an extra $270m impact into Nassau’s economy in 2025 based on the forecast six million-plus passenger arrivals.

The Bahamas’ per head cruise passenger spend, according to the FCCA survey, stood at an average $120.93 for the 12 months to end-April 2024 and represented a more than $11 decline on the $131.95 enjoyed in 2018. “That’s not a one-time benefit; that’s an annual benefit,” Mr Maura told this newspaper of the potential $270m spending increase.

“The fact is someone else out there is able to offer experiences and products that cause individuals to spend a little more than $45 more than they have been spending when they visit The Bahamas.” This nation was ranked seventh by the FCCA survey for per capita cruise passenger spend, with both St Maarten and St Kitts also ahead of it at $163 and $145 per head, respectively.

“I would say that, in the case of St Kitts, that’s a tour component,” Mr Maura added. “They are getting more out of tours than we are. Then you go to Aruba, and experience the opportunities there as well.” Aruba’s per capita cruise passenger spending stood at $131.05, around $10 higher than The Bahamas, and the cruise port chief said just matching that would boost this nation’s economy by $60m based on next year’s arrivals forecast.

Mr Maura said he had compared The Bahamas’ guest satisfaction rankings in the 2024 FCCA survey with the last pre-COVID one conducted on the cruise industry’s behalf in 2018. He noted that this nation’s score was effectively “flat” when passengers were asked how satisfied they were with their overall visit to The Bahamas, ranking 23rd out of 33 destinations on 2024 compared to 24th out of 36 some six years ago.

“Obviously we don’t want to be flat, and we don’t want to be ranked 23rd or 24th,” the Nassau Cruise Port chief said. “We obviously have been working hard to improve the demand for our destination, in the case of Nassau specifically, having spent over $300m on the waterfront [cruise port] which opened in May 2023.”

Mr Maura, stating he was unsure how much “legacy perceptions” of Nassau and The Bahamas may have influenced the findings, acknowledged: “We would have liked to have seen better ratings. But I don’t look at this as a negative; I look at this as an opportunity.

“There’s a tremendous opportunity given the fact this year we are going to welcome 5.3m or 5,4m passengers to Nassau, and next year we will have over six million. There’s really a great opportunity here to give these guests more to do, and be innovative and creative and not do the same as everyone else.

“If we are offering the same, or nearly the same, as they are introduced to in other destinations there’s a real likelihood they may have had their fill. If we are different, unique and innovative there’s a chance they’ll give it a try as they will not have done it before. That’s something for us to look carefully at and, in some cases, continue to look at.”

Bahamian tour and excursion operators, though, have frequently complained in the past that their innovation and creativity has been stifled by the cruise lines directing their passengers to use only certain providers while also controlling the prices they charge and the mark-ups they earn.

An insight into this influence was provided by the FCCA survey, which noted that three-quarters or 75 percent of passenger tours and excursions in The Bahamas are booked and paid for via the cruise lines. Just 4 percent book directly with the local provider, with travel agents accounting for the 21 percent balance. Only 47 percent of visiting passengers go on tours and excursions.

The cruise lines have often cited a lack of liability insurance coverage among Bahamian providers as a key obstacle to doing business with them. However, the latter are arguing that they also have to compete directly with the cruise lines, as evidenced by Royal Caribbean’s developing Paradise island beach club destination, although the industry’s retort is there are plenty of passengers to satisfy all businesses.

Mr Maura, meanwhile, reiterated: “A lot of the work we have been doing is about increasing per passenger spend, and obviously there is more work to do going back to the experience, the offerings, things for people to do and product variety.

“More work there along with perhaps marketing; we have to take a good look at our marketing efforts to ensure people understand the value and why a Bahamian experience is worth putting money into. That caught my eye, and it’s of concern and interest to all. There’s probably a lot of small things we can be doing to make a more significant economic contribution.”

Arguing that The Bahamas, as the regional leader with $655m in economic impact from the cruise industry, faces a ‘glass half full’ situation, Mr Maura said: “I would look at the glass half full portion as the good portion, and the half empty portion as the opportunity - things we can substantially target and fill the glass.

“Other people are doing it. It’s not impossible. It’s a real opportunity and very few destinations have the strategic or comparative advantage we have given our proximity to the home ports of Port Miami, Port Canaveral and Port Everglades along with the six million visitors we have.”

The Nassau Cruise Port chief also asserted that The Bahamas’ proximity to the cruise industry’s Florida home ports means it has “a greater challenge than most destinations” when it comes to enticing repeat visitors, who have been to this nation multiple times, to leave the boat because they believe they have experienced all it has to offer - thus requiring continued reinvestment in, and refreshing of, this nation’s product.

The Bahamas ranked 32nd out of the 33 destinations when passengers were asked whether this was their first visit in the 2024 survey, with just 51.6 percent replying ‘yes’. “The 19 percent that stay on board [when in port], that’s the issue,” Mr Maura argued. “The challenge for us, which is greater than most destinations, is so many of our visitors have been to us so many times before.’

“That is the challenge. We have to continue to innovate, continue to innovate, and we have to continue to promote and market to cause those repeat visitors to come off the ship even though they’ve been to us three, four or five times. So much of this has to do with continual reinvestment in our product and expansion of our product.

“There’s a fantastic opportunity for very capable Bahamians to invest in and expand our tourism product. It’s not all about creating things of monumental scale. Many visitors come to The Bahamas and Caribbean looking for intimate, micro experiences. There’s opportunities for all kinds of folks to step up, give it a try and see what they can do. That’s a wonderful challenge to have.”

Mr Maura noted that The Bahamas had also slipped to 13th out of the 33 destinations in the 2024 FCCA report, as opposed to eighth out of 36 in 2018, for how likely cruise passengers were to return as stopover visitors and hotel guests.

“A little disappointing there,” he conceded, “but an opportunity for is to look at marketing and promotion and how we work closely with our hotel partners in creating opportunities for those guests to return as stopover visitors more easily. I think an area we need to look at as an opportunity is how likely a cruise passenger, or family, is to return for a land-based vacation and work very hard on it.”