By NEIL HARTNELL and

FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporters

The Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce’s president is hoping entrepreneurs outside Celebration Key “seize the opportunity” to attract a share of the increased spending brought by Carnival’s guests.

Dillon Knowles, speaking just before the $600m private port attraction officially opened on Saturday, told Tribune Business: “The extra traffic and folks coming to Grand Bahama is always going to be a good thing, and other entrepreneurs in Grand Bahama need to figure out how to get those folks exiting the park and spend money elsewhere, not just with vendors in the park although we want them to do well.

“We’d like other entrepreneurs in the community to seize the opportunity. We’ll see how it all pans out. They’re [Carnival] also going to need suppliers outside Celebration Key, so obviously it’s going to have a domino effect in that respect but, from a Chamber perspective, we’d like to see more attention provided to the growth of Grand Bahama and not just the vendors at the park and their suppliers.

“Their ultimate goal, I think, is four ships a day with 4,000 passengers per ship,” Mr Knowles added. “That’s potentially 16,000 passengers a day, maybe five days a week once they get phase two up and running. That’s a significant increase in foot traffic to Grand Bahama and, if we get a significant portion of that spending money in the economy, that will do wonders.

“They’re putting down a sizeable chunk of change so they [Carnival] know they have to make it work, and we have to figure out how to tap into it. ... The vendors at Celebration Key seem to be in great spirits, and are feeling this is a great opportunity for them. I don’t know what the off-park attractions are going to be like, at least in the short-term, in terms of tours and other ventures of that nature.”

Christine Duffy, Carnival’s president, speaking at Celebration Key’s Saturday opening said the $600m destination had “been more than 25 years in the making”. The destination will be on the itinerary of 20 Carnival cruise ships sailing from ten US home ports.

She added that Celebration Key is capable of accommodating Carnival’s largest vessels, including the biggest in its fleet through 2029, and work is already underway to expand berth capacity from two to four ships. Ms Duffy said “more than 1,200 Bahamians” had been hired to build and operate the destination, enabling many who had been forced to leave the island by Hurricane Dorian in 2019 to return.

Meanwhile, a Grand Bahama dive operator echoed Mr Knowles by confirming Freeport business owners are waiting to see if guests will venture outside Celebration Key. Karen Rolle, owner of Sun Odyssey Divers, said that while she is confident the destination will attract a large volume of guests she is unsure if they will choose to venture out into the wider Grand Bahama.

Speaking to Tribune Business, Ms Rolle revealed that an updated price sheet for taxi transportation from Celebration Key to Freeport listed the 45-minute drive as $50 per person when traveling in small groups - a cost that could deter some cruise ship passengers.

“Celebration Key just opened and there’s going to be a lot of people. Freeport is just waiting to see how many of those people are actually going to come into Freeport,” said Mrs Rolle.

“We got a sheet with what the taxi transportation is going to cost. If they have six or more, it’ll be $20 per person. But if it’s only one to two people, it’ll be $50 each way. If you only got two people, that would be $200 round trip. I don’t know how many people are going to pay $100 round trip to come into Freeport for an activity.”

Ms Rolle added that Celebration Key is not located close to any local businesses, and she was doubtful that many cruise passengers will spend up to $50 for a taxi ride into Freeport. “In Nassau there’s a better chance of them walking around and spending some money, because downtown is small and close to the cruise port,” said Mrs Rolle.

“Celebration Key is a 45-minute drive into Freeport, and the only thing you have is Celebration Key out there for them to walk around and see. There’s no place that they could walk to see local Bahamian businesses. It’s a taxi ride, it’s a fee, and the majority of them are not going to pay the money. They may pay $10 one-way or $20 one-way, but they’re not going to pay $50 one-way.”

Mrs Rolle said bookings are down from last year, and the uncertainty surrounding upgrades to Grand Bahama International Airport is preventing increased airlift to the island.

“The numbers are down. For one thing, our airport has still not been taken care of. They keep getting on the news, talking about what they doing and how much money they spending on Grand Bahama’s airport. That’s a bunch of bull. It still looks like crap. And we can’t get the airlift in here that we need to get in here. Cruise ship passengers don’t spend the money that stop over passengers spend,” said Mrs Rolle.

She added that stopover visitors are also needed to drive traffic at the Port Lucaya Marketplace, where vendors have frequently complained about the decline in business and visitor numbers.

“Port Lucaya is already drying up because of the hotel there and all this big talk, but they don’t anticipate anything until maybe 2028. This is 2025. How long can those small vendors hold on out there with making less than $100 a day, and some of them less than $100 a week? I know a vendor personally, and some days she doesn’t even open any more. She says it doesn’t make sense. She doesn’t even make money to pay for her gas to drive there,” said Mrs Rolle.