The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce’s president yesterday said it would be “wonderful” if the four cruise ships that visited the island on Wednesday can be sustained.

James Carey, told Tribune Business: “It is always good when we have more activity here. I can’t say whether that is sustained or a one-off at the moment; I just don’t have that information. If it’s sustained that would be wonderful news. We are grateful nonetheless that they would come in. The drivers and vendors all would have benefited from their presence, so that’s good. Any little sign of picking up is good for Grand Bahama.”

Four cruise ships – the Norwegian Sky, the Norwegian Pearl, the Gran Classica and Ocean Voyager - docked in Freeport Harbour on Wednesday morning, with hundreds of passengers boarding tour buses and heading for attractions in Grand Bahama’s West End and the Port Lucaya Marketplace.

Three hundred visitors were bused to Crystal Bay Beach, where they took part in the “swim with the pigs” experience. The site not only gives visitors an opportunity to swim with and feed trained pigs, but there are kayaks available, a restaurant that serves Bahamian dishes and drinks, a gift shop and cabanas set up along the beach shore.

Steven Johnson, the Ministry of Tourism’s general manager for Grand Bahama, said: “Grand Bahama is primed for what is about to come. We’re excited about today and about the future. We were in Colombia about two weeks ago and we’re looking at a programme out of Colombia. It’s not confirmed yet, but we’re working on it.

“Grand Bahama has turned into an all-age party city. People are coming here, whether corporately or for leisure, to celebrate and have parties in Grand Bahama. We’re excited about the opportunities that are coming...... We have two of the top diving exploration spots in the region at Tiger Beach just outside of West End and Shark Junction.

“There is lots of activity at those spots. In fact, we have people coming in to make movies at those sites. Actually, I recently signed about 15-20 different releases, giving approval for movie companies to bring in equipment to make their movies,” Mr Johnson added.

“There’s something about diving here in Grand Bahama, particularly shark diving, that you cannot get anywhere else in The Bahamas. So Grand Bahama has suddenly become a big diving hotspot. We’re excited about the possibilities for Grand Bahama’s tourism.” Mr Johnson said Grand Bahama was also seeking to bring in fraternal tourism, religious tourism and other major groups.

Senator James Turner said of the cruise passenger influx: “This is a red-letter day for Grand Bahama, and it is certainly the beginning of a new day for the people of our island. This is the time that reminds us of what once was and what we have to reclaim.

“We’ve been saying for a long time in Grand Bahama that we all ought to participate in the prosperity of the islands of The Bahamas. Today is wonderful. Four cruise ships in the port, we see buses going back and forth, picking up and dropping off tourist. We see the vendors here in the marketplace negotiating, we see hundreds of visitors walking around and we see our tourism officials smiling.”

Meanwhile, with downtown Freeport in urgent need of revitalisation, Mr Carey said: “I think there is a bit of a legal issue in terms of moving the derelict buildings downtown. There is a solution for everything. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just finding the right solution. But Freeport does look a bit tired with the number of derelict buildings and other properties. Not just with the downtown area, but it is more pronounced in the downtown area where a lot of persons pass through.

“The Grand Bahama Port Authority said the same thing to me in my capacity, and so has the minister for Grand Bahama, so I’m hoping they can find a solution to get this done. In some areas they did put a coat of paint on the buildings and that sort of thing, but there are a lot of them that are beyond the coat of paint right now.”

Grand Bahama has experienced a “high rate of foreclosures”, Mr Carey lamented, and this was before Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that there was “no need to demolish buildings that can be salvaged”, as it would be more expensive to start again rather than repair what is there.

“There are a lot of persons I would imagine still in need of homes. There seems to be a fairly high degree of homelessness if you look at the vagrants that tend to move about the business areas, and persons have their spots where they are begging consistently,” he added.

“I saw in the newspaper that the taxi drivers are asking for the same relief package the vendors at the Port Lucaya Marketplace are supposed to be getting. I would say every little bit helps. When you have nothing, $500 is a lot of money.”

The Minister for Grand Bahama, Ginger Moxey, told reporters earlier this week that the cabinet had approved $177,000 to be spread around 350-plus vendors in the Port Lucaya, Smith’s Point and Eight Mile Rock areas, which would have amounted to an average of $500 per vendor.

Mr Carey added: “Five hundred dollars is a lot to some people, but with today’s cost of living it can only go so far. A lot of these people also need to eat, and that’s going to help them. A lot of them have families, so it’s a very tough situation here, and you know Grand Bahama was hit with hurricanes and COVID-19.

“Now the world situation is ultimately going to impact us as well; we’re not on our own with that. But certainly it’s like every time we seem to be able to have a little glimmer of light down the road, somebody throws a bucket of water on it.”