Also, Spain just closed it boarders.

Catholic Church in New York cancelled mass tomorrow.

I agree Newcitizen. This will be an "economic catastrophe" bigger than Dorian for the Bahamas.

As usual, our leaders are not addressing the fast moving events nor have they diversified the economy away for big box tourism projects...which are now "dead in the water". With Dorian knocking out Abaco and Grand Bahama and CoVID 19 knocking out Nassau is this the black swan we were praying never comes?

Some statistics about tourism found on the www.tourismtoday.com website:

1.Just under 50% of all persons in The Bahamas are directly employed in tourism.

2. If you add those who are indirectly employed in tourism, the percentage increases to 70%.

3. Tourism provides foreign exchange (US dollars) which allows the government to pay bills

4. Approximately 1.5 million stopover visitors and 3.5 million cruise visitors per annum. (Canada has advised its citizens to stop non essential travel abroad and to self quarantine for 14 days when you return).

Excellent analysis Well muddo.

“The cruise ships currently pay $18 per passenger “head tax” to the Public Treasury, now that rebates ceased from June 30 last year, plus an estimated $3-$4 per head in docking fees. This takes the total levy imposed on them to around $21-$22 per passenger.“ The Tribune.

So the government gets $21 per passenger, the average passenger spends $15 in port. Total $36 per passenger x 10,000 x 365 days per year = $131,400,000 in loss taxes and retail business. Using an economic multiplier of 4 and considering the loss of hard currency to the Bahamas then the impact is $500,000,000.

Assuming a $10 billion economy this will equate to a 5% shrinkage in GDP.

As Well muddo says the business model of these sea monster is to pack as many ppl on each cruise, clean to the minimum standards and dump as much garbage in the ocean where no one is watching and there is zero penalties compared to the recycling.

I would be shocked if the CDC comes out even after CoVID 19 passes in a couple of months and says it is now safe to put 3,500 on a cramp dirty boat.

If these monsters stop operation it will put a dent in sea pollution and global warming.

This story is a bunch of nonsense. The headline should read: "Royal Caribbean suspends US cruise operations after national emergency declared". The Verge.com

Rest assured if Royal Caribbean was a black Bahamian over the hill business god knows they would get such gracious treatment.

So Mr. Tribune please do a little more investigation and answer the questions or interview somoe one who has the answers:

1. What is the governments reaction? Are they going to help business ppl by lowering taxes.
2. What is Bay St's merchant's reactions?
3. What is the financial impact of not having 10,000 visitors a day paying the Cruise ship per head tax to the government?

Its almost as if the newspaper it tip toeing around this storey.

I wonder why?

Excellent point BID. The fact remains that if the Bahamas Ship Registry in London registers a ship in the Bahamas then that ship's home, like a Bahamian Citizen, can not be denied entrance into the Country. So the British government, often very frustrated with banana republics with fly by night offshore companies, permanent residencies, zero income tax rates and ship registry flags of convenience told the ship to "go home".

"Many shipowners are allowed to remain legally anonymous in open registry systems, making it difficult to identify and prosecute legal actions (whether civil or criminal) against these individuals. Some ships with flags of convenience have been found engaging in criminal activity, offering substandard working conditions, and spewing pollution into the environment or illegally fishing. As a result, ships flying under these flags are now targeted by other nations for special enforcement when they make call in one of the host nation's ports." Source: Internet.

Now that we have 5 confirmed cases of Covid 19 at the dock where 10,000 tourist a day disembark, we have put the entire country at risk for a couple of ship registration fees. Greed at its worse.

Hmmm? I guess because this is a Bahamian ship and we have taken registration fees from them for decades we are obligated to help them when they are in distress.

This is the problem with the offshore flags of convenience. We have zero capacity to help.

This ship didn't even start off in the Florida.

27 Feb Departing from La Romana, Dominican Republic hotels
28 Feb Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
02 Mar Cozumel, Mexico
03 Mar Belize City
06 Mar Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
07 Mar Colon, Panama
08 Mar Cartagena, Colombia
10 Mar Willemstad, Curacao Island, Dutch Antilles
12 Mar Arriving in Bridgetown, Barbados

Due to financial greed cruise ships which are the worse breeding ground for the virus will continue to be allowed to stop in Nassau and let 10,000 visitors mingle with the population on a daily basis.

If theme parks, basket ball games, restaurants, travel from China, travel to Europe and churches around the world have closed it would be logical to stop cruise ships for 30 days. Cruising is a non essential leisure activity.

Secondly, shanty towns in Nassau and Andros, along with many homes over the hill have no running water and electricity and a large undocumented population. Another breeding ground for the virus.

We live in ignorance because only one person has been tested in the entire Bahamas for Civid 19. We should have been proactive doing statistical random sampling of vulnerable groups throughout the country including old folk home, healthcare providers, undocumented shanty town residents, customs and immigration officers, airport workers, school children etc.

With zero testing the virus has the capacity to spread completely below the radar. By the time it is detected it could be too late. The last thing we need is for the boarder to be shut because it is deemed like Europe and China that we did not do anything.

Thanks Well mudda

No one has blogged on this?

I guess even the bloggers are exhausted at the lack of internal controls, independent audits and monthly bank reconciliations displayed by our incompetent leaders. Back in the day bank reconciliations were done daily. By the time a monthly bank reconciliation is done it will take up to 60 days to discover any irregularity. By that time them money is already spent.

As Turnquest laments that the government is broke its ironic that million dollar frauds go undetected for extended periods of time. If the government was truly broke these million dollar frauds couldn’t occur because the checks would bounce.

If there are over 100 government departments each being funded on an annual basis, this leaves large amounts of money sitting on government current accounts all over the place. With uneven internal controls and zero external audits and no one examining the big picture we can expect this waste which could be 20% of the revenue to continue. So no one is surprised, no one even cares anymore as it seems the modus operadi for our country. Why waste your breath complaining or being shocked...it will only make you sick.

Since we can’t decentralize government I recommend that all these department bank accounts get shut down and operate one central checking account. Please move from antiquated RBC, a simple way to stop check fraud would be to input all check numbers into a banking system which stops checks outside of approved numbers being approved.

But that’s what happens when you have a backwards and antiquated financial system for locals. And we call ourselves a financial center...don’t make me laugh.

Well_mudda, I think at the end of the day they will have to withdraw the Electricity Rate Reduction Bond Offering because the legal department of most institutional US investors will be unable approve the issue.

With the collapse of the stock market why would anyone take on BEC risk? A company that is badly run, never made a profit, has a challenged board, corruption in the past, in a banana republic....imagine having to deal with these guys on a business transaction and have them sitting across the table from you. You would be shaking your heads.

Besides no one is investing in fossil fuels except the Bahamas these days. Look at whats happening in Guyana ... BPC is next.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/worl…