The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Nassau Cruise Port’s top executive says he is “absolutely” confident that its $300m transformation will increase visitor spending yields and lure more hotel guests downtown, adding: “We’re not creating a tourism Wal-Mart.”

Michael Maura, in a recent interview with Tribune Business, acknowledged that “the work ahead of us is very much to” raise per capita cruise passenger spending from $80 - a sum that is among the lowest in the Caribbean - to a level closer to the near-$200 per head in St Maarten and the US Virgin Islands.

While much focus is often placed on passenger headcount, with Nassau Cruise Port receiving 13 percent more visitors during the 2023 first quarter when compared to pre-COVID figures from the same period in 2019, he said Prince George Wharf’s overhaul is designed to create “a high-end boutique tourism experience” that will persuade tourists to part with more money.

Arguing that it “is quite possible” for Nassau to match the spending yields generated by its major Caribbean rivals, Mr Maura told this newspaper that the Bahamian capital can only achieve this with “the right product offering”. The cruise port’s nine-figure upgrade is designed to be the catalyst that sparks the revival of downtown’s waterfront, with Bahamian entrepreneurs gaining the confidence to invest in their own retail, restaurant, tours, excursions and other attractions.

“The $300m that we have invested, 50 percent of it was focused on the marine works and 50 percent on the upland works,” the Nassau Cruise Port chief said, describing Prince George Wharf’s six cruise ship berths as being equivalent to Lynden Pindling International Airport’s (LPIA) runways where guests first land in The Bahamas.

“We’re running 13 percent ahead of record 2019 levels with over 1.205m passengers for the first three months of 2023, and are working very hard to see 4.2m visitors for the calendar year of 2023,” Mr Maura added. “We have these 4.2m opportunities, and historically Nassau has only enjoyed approximately $80 per passenger on the spend, while other jurisdictions like the US Virgin Islands and St Maarten have been operating at close to $200 per passenger.

“The way we have looked at is that the investment we have made, the other 50 percent, which represents all the retail, the food and beverage, all the entertainment, this new restored and reimagined waterfront for downtown Nassau, is very much focused on getting visitors to spend more money.”

Mr Maura said Bahamian businesses, entrepreneurs and all sectors that rely on the cruise industry for their livelihoods need to look at Nassau’s projected 4.2m cruise passenger arrivals for 2023, and the 4.5m forecast for 2023, as “opportunities” to extract an extra $100m per head from by providing value-added experiences, products and services that justify higher spend.

With Nassau Cruise Port’s $300m transformation set for its grand opening at end-May 2023, he argued that even increasing per passenger spending by $100 during 2023’s second half would yield an extra $210m economic impact that hits both local businesses and their employees. And, were such an increase to be seen for the 2024 full year, the potential extra economic injection could be as high as $450m.

Giving an insight into what Nassau has to compete for, Mr Maura said: “That $210m increase goes into the pockets of tour operators, retailers, food and beverage providers, the Straw Market, the hair braiders. That’s not money going into the Public Treasury. That’s money actually being spent with Bahamian businesses and entrepreneurs....

“We’re talking about competing at the same level as St Maarten and St Thomas. This is quite possible when you have the right product and right offering. It goes back to comments that I made previously; we’re going to have 4.2m opportunities this year and 4.5m opportunities next year. That’s a lot of opportunities for small businesses to develop themselves.

“I encourage people to start. If they do it well, and are a high achiever, they could be putting money in their pocket. We need that entrepreneurial spirit in New Providence. We need things for people to do.” Mr Maura also added that the revamped cruise port, with its Junkanoo Museum and amphitheatre to host events, are focusing on a wider audience beyond the cruise industry.

“It’s not focused exclusively on the cruise market,” he told Tribune Business. “It’s also hotels. People staying in the hotels come to Nassau to experience the culture and people, not just to experience - with all due respect to them - the best of Baha Mar or Atlantis. They’re looking for more than that. We expect downtown Nassau, as a result of the $300m we have spent, to see a pick up in the number of resort guests coming downtown to experience the waterfront.

“I can tell you this. Everything about our space is about feeding, promoting and elevating the quality of the product and the quality of the experience. We’re doing that, one, because we want to make sure we’re putting our best foot forward as a country but we’re also looking to materially benefit and massively optimise the economic potential.

“We’re not looking to create a tourism Wal-Mart. We’re looking to feature a high-end boutique tourism experience that provides a wonderful story for guests to take home, where they sit and share their experience with their family and friends in their living room, and say there was so much to do and so much to see.”

Global Ports Holding, Nassau Cruise Port’s 49 percent controlling shareholder, recently hailed Prince George Wharf’s $300m transformation “as a global blueprint for future cruise port investment”. In recently unveiling its financial results for the nine months to end-December 2022, it said Nassau Cruise Port had received close to four times’ as many passengers as it handled during the COVID-hit prior year comparative when cruising only resumed in June 2021.

“Nassau Cruise Port benefited from its proximity to the key home ports in Florida and the cruise lines’ continued desire to operate a higher volume than normal of short cruises in this area at the expense of longer itineraries to other parts of the Caribbean,” Global Ports Holding said of the nine months. “As a result, Nassau Cruise Port welcomed 2.6m passengers in 2022, up from just 687,000 passengers in the comparable period last year.

“Nassau Cruise Port, on some days, is now hosting six cruise ships simultaneously, utilising the new berthing that was created as part of our significant investment into the port. On February 27, 2023, the port welcomed record of 28,554 passengers in a single day.

“During the nine-month period, we continued to invest in the transformation of Nassau Cruise Port, and as Global Ports Holding’s investment into the port nears completion, the vision for this port is becoming a reality. Global Ports Holding’s management believes this port will stand as a testament to Global Ports Holding’s cruise port and destination development capabilities, and as a global blueprint for future cruise port investment.”