The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Exuma’s Chamber of Commerce president yesterday voiced concerns that planned weekly calls by a cruise line “don’t blend in” with the island’s existing tourism product.

Pedro Rolle told Tribune Business he would prefer that the Crystal Cruises not send its Crystal Serenity vessel to Exuma as part of 16 seven-night voyages around The Bahamas if vital questions on the projected economic impact are not answered.

He is presently not in favour of Crystal Cruises coming to Exuma, particularly if the island has to dredge George Town’s harbour to accommodate the vessel and a potentially massive influx of visitors travelling back and forth between shore and ship.

Mr Rolle said: “There are more questions about this than there are answers. When I look at the history of cruise ships and cruise lines, I just don’t see where they blend in with what we’re trying to do in Exuma.

“What harbour are they going to dock at? What accommodations do we have for the cruise ship in terms of if we have to do dredging and things like that? These kinds of things concern me, and if the answer is ‘yes’ then I am opposed to it.”

Crystal Cruises announced last week that from July 3 they will be calling on Exuma, Long Island, Harbour Island, Bimini and San Salvador with the Crystal Serenity ship, which will use Nassau and Bimini as its home ports.

Mr Rolle thus joins a growing chorus of persons opposed to Crystal Cruises coming to their island. Hoteliers on Harbour Island have already expressed their opposition, citing that they just do not have the infrastructure capacity and amenities to handle potentially up to 900 passengers coming ashore at once.

The Exuma Chamber chief added: “The second thing is if it’s coming to Exuma, then what happened to the public engagement to see whether or not Exumians are in favour of this. This is something that should be the subject of mass discussion at the community level.

“Are they going to employ local pilots, and will there be contracts with locals?. If they are contracting locals, how is this impacting our local entrepreneurs? These are critical questions that need to be answered.

“How will Crystal Cruises mesh with our local tourism product? When people do come to Exuma now, they come for longer periods of time and they stay at Sandals and they stay at one of the other hotels,” Mr Rolle said.

“Will some of these people now choose that instead of having to come in and spend all of that money for an entire week? They (cruise passengers) can only come now and spend a day in Exuma, and then touch down on several other islands as opposed to a week. Will this affect the types of tourist we get coming to Exuma, and what kind of studies have been done to see if this will impact our overall tourism clientele?

“I think that if there are no answers to these questions that are forthcoming, due to Exuma being on the trajectory that it is on right now to do very well, I think once our tourism market is properly presented and properly promoted to attract a higher level clientele than what the cruise ship lines will be bringing in, then I don’t see the benefits of having a cruise ship stop to Exuma.”

Not everyone is opposed to Crystal Cruises. Neal Watson, owner/operator of Neal Watson’s Bimini Scuba Centre, said: “I think this is great. Some of their cruises will depart from Nassau, and some will depart from Bimini, so I am excited about this and I am sure any bit of business for the island would be welcomed.”

Acknowledging the concerns, Mr Watson added: “Bimini already has a cruise ship dock and is already like a cruise destination. Virgin has come in, and then we used to have the Resorts World boat. But I like this one. I like the idea of Crystal Cruises, as it is smaller than the other ones and it’s all domestic. I do like the idea that every dollar spent off of those ships will go into The Bahamas somewhere.”