By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A senior tourism executive yesterday conceded that “we don’t do the best job” of showcasing all The Bahamas has to offer to the five million-plus cruise passengers that visit Nassau annually.

Joy Jibrilu, the Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board’s chief executive, told Tribune Business that this nation must “go deeper” than just the Bahamian food and retail offerings provided at the Nassau Cruise Port if it is to convert greater numbers of cruise visitors into higher-spending stopover guests who come for a land-based vacation.

She spoke out after the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association’s (FCCA) recent economic impact assessment on 33 Caribbean and Latin American destinations revealed that The Bahamas’ lowest passenger satisfaction scores came when persons were asked how likely they are to return as land-based visitors or recommend this destination to other travellers.

On a scale of one to ten, with ten the highest, the FCCA assessment said: “The Bahamas scored lowest for passengers saying they are ‘likely to return for a land-based visit’ (5.6), and their ‘likelihood of recommending to a friend’ (5.8). However, both ratings are similar to the ratings of other destinations.”

The FCCA, which represents the major cruise lines including the likes of Carnival and Royal Caribbean, said The Bahamas also ranked 13th out of the 33 territories on how likely cruise passengers were to return for a land-based or hotel vacation. While this comfortably placed The Bahamas in the top half, the 13th ranking also represented a slippage from the last FCCA survey in 2018 when it was ranked 8th.

Mrs Jibrilu, though, told this newspaper that such findings represent a challenge and “huge opportunity” for The Bahamas rather than a gloomy negative. With five million-plus visitors arriving at Nassau Cruise Port annually, she said converting just 100,000 of these to stopovers would provide a huge annual boost to land-based tourism in The Bahamas.

Still, The Bahamas has long targeted converting cruise passengers into stopover tourists given that the latter typically spend 28 times’ more in this destination, stay for longer and have a greater economic impact. Mrs Jibrilu acknowledged that the FCCA report shows this nation has more work ahead to realise these ambitions.

“Certainly, as it relates to our cruise passengers my observation is that when they come into the port the reality is they are not fully exposed to all that Nassau and Paradise Island have to offer,” she told Tribune Business.

“As we look at all the research coming out now, recognising travellers are wanting to travel in 2025 for those unique, nature-based experiences and they want to immerse themselves and enjoy native cuisine, with the arrival of the cruise port we don’t do the best job of exposing them to all of this.

“Nassau Cruise Port has tried with all the Bahamian retail stores and opportunities for Bahamian food, but we need to go deeper. That’s why we at the Promotion Board feel it’s important to have a presence there so that we can speak directly to visitors coming directly to the destination and show them all they can experience from a land-based holiday.”

The FCCA report said cruise passengers who exit the vessel while in port typically spend an average 4.2 hours onshore. This is more than an hour less than the regional leader, Aruba, and Mrs Jibrilu said this was insufficient time for visitors “to get a feel for how much Nassau/Paradise Island has to offer.

“That’s our goal,” she added. “To really have an opportunity to demonstrate that so we can really change that narrative... The opportunity exists. We find ourselves in this enviable position of having so many guests. We’re not looking for 10 percent of arrivals in Nassau to become stopover visitors. If we get 5.5m cruise visitors that’s 500,000 more stopovers.

“Can you imagine getting 100,000 converted every year? That would be a phenomenal success for the destination. It’s a huge opportunity. It’s an opportunity our competitors would like to have. I definitely continue to look at it as a positive; it’s just how do we realise all the potential this opportunity provides.”

Asked how close the Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board is to establishing its desired presence at the Nassau Cruise Port, Mrs Jibrilu replied: “We’re still in negotiations. We’re still trying to work it all out. We are not put off in any which way. We have to keep picking at it in the hope everyone will see it as a win-win situation for them - the cruise industry as well as the destination.”

And, acknowledging that travellers are frequently seeking out the culture and history of the destinations they visit, she added: “We have such a high repeat visitor grouping relative to Nassau and The Bahamas. Once they discover it, they are ready for more. All it is exposing these people coming for a few hours to these possibilities. We will continue to plough away at it because it’s important.”

Robert Sands, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president, yesterday told Tribune Business that lower-cost cruise voyages compared to the higher costs of a stopover vacation in this nation was one factor working against passenger conversion.

Pointing out that the “unprecedented growth” in cruise passenger arrivals to The Bahamas post-COVID, when compared to other Caribbean destinations, may skew the FCCA survey results, he nevertheless added: “That is an area we would always like to see higher in terms of the conversion.

“There are a number of reasons for that. Realistically, the report spoke to cruises offering a less expensive version for travel for a number of people, and currently in The Bahamas we don’t have many entry-level hotels with entry-level costs. We tend to be upper middle and luxury class, which is a disadvantage in that particular area.

“Notwithstanding that, building on the large number of cruise passengers we have, we are seeing some conversion. I don’t have the numbers, but that remains a work in progress for us as a destination to work on.”