The Tribune

• Just 1,400 short of full deck in final week

• Cruise ship calls up at 525 for year-to-date

• Over $91m invested in port in year to March

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Passenger occupancies on vessels calling at Nassau Cruise Port in the final week of May exceeded 97 percent, it was revealed yesterday, signalling the sector is closing on full recovery from COVID-19’s ravages.

Michael Maura, the Prince George Wharf operator’s chief executive, told Tribune Business that it handled some 51,402 passengers during the last seven days in May - a number that was just shy of the combined 52,798 maximum guest capacity on the vessels that called.

Describing this as “certainly good news”, he added that “the positive trend is there” to show that vessel occupancies and passenger volumes at Nassau Cruise Port have progressively strengthened throughout 2022 to-date after The Bahamas and rest of the world escaped the COVID-19 case surge sparked by the Omicron variant around the turn of the year.

And, comparing 2022’s performance year-to-date to 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, Mr Maura disclosed that total vessel calls to Nassau for the first five months are up by 24 or 4.8 percent when measured against that same period three years ago.

“If you look at 2019 for the months of January, February, March, April and May, we received 501 ships at Nassau Container Port,” he disclosed, “with the busiest month in that period being January, although March is usually pretty good. When you compare that to the same point in 2022, we had 515 ships versus 501, which is 21 more.”

While vessels arriving at Nassau Cruise Port for 2022 to-date have not quite matched the 100 percent occupancies achieved during the same period in 2019, Mr Maura said the gap has narrowed in every month. The year started with passenger occupancy numbers below 50 percent for January 2022, and with vessel calls standing below 2019 comparatives at 100 compared to 114.

However, in the three subsequent months cruise ship call volumes have beaten 2019 levels. February 2022 saw 103 calls compared to 95 for the same month in 2019, while Nassau Cruise Port in March hosted 130 vessels compared to 108 during the same month pre-pandemic. Some 111 cruise ships arrived in April 2022, as opposed to 102 in the same month in 2019. May cruise ship numbers were essentially flat, coming in at 80 as opposed to 82 in 2019.

While January’s passenger numbers and vessel calls were hit by COVID’s Omicron variant, Mr Maura said cruise ship occupancies have improved steadily since. “February was at 53 percent,” he added of passenger occupancies, “and that climbed to 130 ships at 71 percent in March. In April, we had 111 ships with 78 percent occupancy and then, in the month of May, we had 80 ships with 84 percent occupancy.

“We would have received 1.1m passengers for that five-month period from January through May 2022. The business is growing, and we have had several calls where we’ve had ships at 100 percent occupancy.” Mr Maura said Nassau Cruise Port was particularly encouraged by the final week in May, where arriving cruise vessels produced their best occupancy numbers yet.

“If you look at the last seven days of May, our occupancy was 97 percent,” he told Tribune Business. “The positive trend is there. That’s certainly good news. We would have received 51,402 total passengers for the last seven days or over last week. One of those days, we did not have a ship, so it was only for six days that we had vessel calls.

“Against 100 percent occupancy, which was 52,798, we had 51,402 actual passengers, which gives us occupancies of just over 97 percent.” Many observers will argue that the critical cruise data is how many passengers actually disembark the ship while in Nassau, and the average per capita spend per visitor. But, while cruise tourism has always been The Bahamas’ volume business, its economic impact should not be discounted.

Nassau Cruise Port was highlighted by its 49 percent controlling shareholder, Global Ports Holding, as being one of two facilities - Antigua being the other - that produced the greatest increase in passenger volumes during the three months to end-March 2022.

Unveiling both its full-year and fourth quarter results, Global Ports Holding said: “While all cruise port reporting segments experienced a significant increase, the most significant increases occurred at Antigua Cruise Port and Nassau Cruise Port, in line with the usual seasonality” as the period represents the peak season in the Caribbean.

Elsewhere, it revealed that Nassau Cruise Port’s ongoing $300m transformation accounted for 95.2 percent, or $91.2m out of $95.8m, in total capital expenditure for the full-year that closed at end-March 2022.  

Disclosing how Nassau is a key component in its growth strategy, Global Ports Holding said: “Long-term, the outlook for the cruise industry continues to be positive. The passenger capacity of the industry is forecasted to grow by 45 percent by 2027 from 2019 levels, driven by the 75 cruise ships currently in the cruise ship order book and due for delivery by 2027.

This growth in the number of ships and the size of ships means that many cruise ports will need to invest in their infrastructure in order to be able to accommodate the new ships. There is no better example of this type of investment than Global Ports Holding’s significant investments into Antigua Cruise Port and Nassau Cruise Port.

“Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Global Ports Holding and the cruise industry, our investment to increase the capacity of these ports and transform the passenger experience has largely continued as planned over the last two years. Since taking over these two ports just before the pandemic in late 2019, Global Ports Holding has invested over $200m in capital expenditure. This demonstrates the commitment of Global Ports Holding and our partners to our ports and destinations.”

Noting the “strong month-on-month acceleration in cruise calls and passenger volumes across our network” since the start of 2022, Global Ports Holding added: “Activity levels are expected to continue to rise across the cruise industry, with 100 percent fleet re-deployment by the cruise lines expected during the summer of 2022.

“This continued positive momentum can be seen in our cruise calls for the three months to March 2022. On a like-for-like basis, calls were just three calls lower than in the same period in 2019, with Antigua and Nassau Cruise Port both welcoming more ships in March 2022 than in March 2019. Concerns around the Omicron variant negatively impacted occupancy levels. However, this impact has proven temporary, with occupancy levels rising strongly throughout the three months to the end of March 2022.

“In its recent quarterly results statement, Royal Caribbean declared that occupancy levels for the three months to March 2022 were 59 percent, with a load factor for March of 68 percent. With booking volumes for March and April significantly higher than in the same period in 2019, Royal Caribbean now expect occupancy levels to exceed 100 percent by the end of the calendar year.”