Good point SP:

Case in point is the multi-billion dollar cruise ship industry. Even though the Caribbean is by far the single biggest cruise ship destination in the world, Caribbean Island states only benefits what amounts to crumbs compared to cruise ship operators.

*nothing* in the Bahamas can be solved economically until this glaring problem is addressed.

jt: Ban the import of foreign plants/trees. We have enough lovely fauna here already.

The spend per cruise visitor is below what is necessary for the modern Bahamian tourist economy to function properly. If the cruise industry is unhappy with the Bahamas it can leave, and we will better off without it, and once employment returns, with our tourists staying in hotels, crime will in turn drop. Give people a job, and a hope, and you'll see wonders....

John - great if we could produce more. But can we seriously outcompete Asia to make cars or iphones? What we _can_ do is staff our own tourism industry, rather than let in cruise ships who use all foreign staff and drive down our hotels pricing power. This will go a huge way to correcting unemployment and provide private sector jobs (so address the other point made above)

Moody's is unimpressed by rising visitor counts. I guess even more tourists spending $50 on Bay St. isn't getting the job done for us financially.....

I wonder what they'd say to a policy that got visitors to stay overnight when they visit and inject real funds into this economy?

What was NOT said above by them in their headline:

"Increased cruise visitors bring growth and prosperity to the Bahamas"

I think we need new and deeper thinking on electricity generation than just asking for a duty cut. Is burning oil the sum total of the options? BEC's renewable plans seem to be talked about and go nowhere. New thinking is needed...

Time to privatize. Once in private hands a hotel will simply pay as no private elec co will let this go on. Instead all Bahmians are forced to pay with BEC not run on proper private business standards!

If BEC was liable, it would only mean the taxpayers of the Bahamas are liable as it is government owned. Is this not yet another reason to privatize BEC so oil spill losses could be recouped from a private owner?

All valid and good points. Huge unemployment, staggering crime numbers, when will it be seen the tradeoff of $1000 spending visitors for $100 spending ones is and was a bad idea?

Or will the cruise ships get bigger, the owners more powerful and the Bahamas a weaker national economy that we'll have to take whatever crumbs they give us?

$100 spending tourists can not support a vibrant, healthy Bahamian economy.

Am glad to see someone has woken up to alert the public!

How are Bahamian workers supposed to compete with non-unionized Phillipino workers on cruise ships who earn a pittance of Bahamian wages and why should they? It is our country!

Perhaps if ships the size of small islands weren't soaking up billions in investment capital there would be a market for it to be invested on LAND.

Failure to address the wider issue of what role if any the low margin cruise industry should play in the Bahamas tourism future is a failing of this analysis.