The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

New Providence tour operators flocked to a Ministry of Tourism seminar designed to keep them on the cutting edge of developments in the fast-growing cruise industry.

The Cruise and Maritime Tours seminar, held at the University of The Bahamas (UB), heard from ministry executives as well as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line officials.

Ellison “Tommy” Thompson, the Ministry of Tourism’s deputy director-general, opened the conference by highlighting The Bahamas’ new Fly Away campaign with rock icon, Lenny Kravitz.

“We get over four million cruisers, and yet the spend is not where it needs to be,” Mr Thompson said. “This seminar is to assist entrepreneurs to be prepared to capitalise on the cruise passengers that are coming now, and to plan for what is coming in the future.

“We have to look at how to diversify the products that we are offering and cater to the crews on the cruise ships who need something to do as well,” he added. “We want tour operators to understand that it is not just The Bahamas that is in this tourism business.

“This is a global exercise and everyone is fighting for the extra tourism dollar. We are an expensive destination and so we have to provide value for money. No one has more personality than Bahamians, and so we need to use that and monetise that.”

Participants also heard from the Tourism Development Corporation’s (TDC) executive director, Janet Johnson; the Ministry of Tourism’s director of research and statistics, Georgina Delancy, and manager of tours and transportation, Craig Mortimer.

TJ Sullivan, Royal Caribbean’s director of global compliance, said: “We see The Bahamas as one of the premier destinations on the globe. We value every opportunity we have to interact with Bahamians.

“We want smaller businesses to enter into the cruise business. We were looking at what are some of the requirements when working with cruise lines, and what are some of the opportunities in addressing customer service.”

He added: “We want to make sure that we are supporting these businesses and highlighting each aspect of history, culinary and walking tours. Ninety percent of cruise passengers will cruise again, and so when we do stop we want to make sure that it is hot and fresh.”

Officials say there will be more training exercises in the near future.