The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

ROYAL Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley hopes to bring three million guests to The Bahamas by 2024, up from 1.5 million - the pre-COVID peak for arrivals in 2019.

His comment to reporters yesterday followed a ceremony celebrating the inaugural cruise of its biggest and newest ship, the Wonder of the Seas. The vessel is the largest cruise ship in the world.

Emphasising the significance of yesterday’s ceremony, Mr Bayley said: “It’s important in so many ways. First of all is the fact that the world’s largest cruise ship, Wonder of the Seas, flies the Bahamian flag, it’s registered in The Bahamas along with 35 other Royal Caribbean ships.

“It’s meaningful because it’s our first port of call on what’s called a revenue cruise where we got our customers, or guests on board and it’s symbolic because when Royal Caribbean was started as a company, as a cruise liner over 50 years ago, our very first port was Nassau. So, here we are 50 years later through everything we’ve all been through and Wonder of the Seas is into Nassau.

“I think it’s also important because it yet again kind of confirms our relationship with The Bahamas that we’ve had over many, many decades. Obviously as a company it’s our flagship brand, this ship, and it’s also a ship that was literally born through the pandemic. It takes about two and a half years to build a ship such as this. This is the fifth ship in the Oasis class.”

The ship, which weighs 236,857 tons, can accommodate nearly 7,000 passengers.

“Every month it will bring 28,000 cruise tourists to The Bahamas and to every destination it goes to,” Mr Bayley said. “Over a year that’s gonna be about 360,000 cruise tourists coming to The Bahamas.”