The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Environmental activists yesterday said The Bahamas needs to reap more money from the cruise ship industry when it resumes sailing as they launched their "rethink" campaign for the sector.

Sam Duncombe, the reEarth president, speaking at a webinar for Rethink Cruise Tourism, a campaign launched by the Global Cruise Activist Network, said in relation to The Bahamas: "In terms of getting the message out, I think we have to look at the economics of what the cruise industry brings to the country.

"Seventy-five percent of our visitors are cruise visitors, but they only represent 10 percent of the tourism dollar. So we need to be getting more money. We need to stop them polluting. The whole industry has to reform, and we're basically giving them what they need to do on a platter and telling them this is what needs to happen so we can all work and live together.”

When it came to rolling out the campaign in The Bahamas, Mrs Duncombe added: “In terms of rolling out the campaign, we will be posting it across all social media and hoping to engage more people in terms of what the campaign actually means, looking at the principles and reasons why people should rethink cruising.

"More dialogue is definitely needed with those companies so that they can actually understand the impact that these ships have on our health, on our environment on our social fabric.”

Mrs Duncombe added that the petition opposing Disney Cruise Line's project at Lighthouse Point, on Eleuthera's southern tip, presently stands at 393,000 and continues to grow. "I think that as a country that has relied on cruise ships tourism for many, many years, I think it's it's more about bringing them in and getting them to do what we need them to do and what we want them to do," she added.

"We are deeply concerned about Disney’s plans for a massive cruise ship port at Lighthouse Point that threaten this unique natural place treasured by generations of Bahamians and visitors from around the world. This is not the place where an environmentally-responsible corporation would choose to develop a massive cruise ship port.”