The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas is the most expensive Caribbean destination for the cruise ship industry, a newly-released survey revealing that it spent 78.3 per cent more in this nation than anywhere else in the region.

The Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association’s (FCCA) tri-annual survey of the sector’s impact on its Caribbean destinations, released yesterday, revealed that the sector’s total $69.9 million outlay in the Bahamas was near-double that of the next most expensive destination, Puerto Rico, at $39.2 million.

The $69.9 million figure, according to the report, reflects payments for port services and passenger taxes, navigation and utility services, and payments to Bahamas-based suppliers and businesses.

“The Bahamas had the highest total of expenditures by cruise lines among the 35 participating destinations, $69.9 million,” the report said.

“The expenditures by cruise lines in the Bahamas were concentrated in port fees and services, which accounted for over 95 per cent of total cruise line expenditures.”

The report indicated that the figures for the Bahamas contained passenger taxes paid for calls on private islands, as well as Nassau and Freeport, and added: “Total expenditures for port fees and local supplies varied considerably across destinations. This reflects the differences in the structure of port fees, the volume of cruise calls, and the availability of and need for ship supplies in each destination.

“In total, the cruise lines spent an estimated $400.8 million in the 35 participating destinations during the 2014-2015 cruise year for port fees and taxes, utilities, navigation services and ship supplies.”

Still, the gap between the Bahamas and Puerto Rico may create concern in some quarters that this nation, already regarded as relatively expensive, could be moving closer to ‘pricing itself out of the market’.

Elsewhere, the FCCA report showed that cruise passengers paid more than double the price for a Bahamas-based excursion or tour if they purchased it from the cruise line as opposed to the local operator.

Excursion/tour tickets bought from the cruise line were 130 per cent more expensive, at $91.25 per head, compared to the average $39.67 paid to the actual Bahamas-based operator.

While the survey urged that this disparity be treated with caution, it may well fuel concerns among some Bahamas-based tourism operators that they are not getting a fair share of the tourism pie. And it may lead for more calls for operators to enjoy better prices and margins from the cruise lines.

“The price paid for a shore excursion is significantly lower for onshore purchases compared to those purchased through the cruise line or another channel,” the FCCA report conceded.

“One needs to be careful in interpreting these data. These are average prices paid as reported by responding cruise passengers. While we can conclude that the cost of a typical tour purchased onshore cost less than the typical tour purchased onboard a cruise ship, we cannot conclude anything about the differential in the cost of identical tours across sales channels.

“We just do not know what the mix of tours is in each channel. It is highly likely that higher value tours are purchased on a cruise ship relative to those purchased on shore.”

The FCCA report added that data it had obtained showed that the cruise lines had paid between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of the excursion prices paid on ship to local operators.

“Just over half (53 per cent) of the passengers reported that their cruise party purchased a shore excursion,” the FCCA study said of the Bahamas.

“The effective local price of the shore excursion was $112.70 per party, but when the full price of the purchase from cruise lines and travel agents is included passengers spent an average of just over $210 per party for their tours.

“Cruise passenger expenditures in the Bahamas were concentrated in four categories which accounted for 74 per cent of their onshore expenditures: Shore excursions, food and beverages, watches and jewellery and clothing.

“Nearly 50 per cent or more of the passengers that went ashore made purchases in the following categories: Shore excursions, clothing and local crafts.”