The Tribune

• Port chief: Nassau can drive visitor impact to $800m

• 2022 fourth quarter arrivals beat pre-COVID by 13k

• And 900k rise for 2023 to give yields ‘springboard’

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Nassau has a “$400m opportunity” to double gross cruise passenger spending if it can fully capitalise on the “springboard” provided by the 900,000 visitor increase forecast for 2023, its port chief argued yesterday.

Michael Maura, Nassau Cruise Port’s chief executive, told Tribune Business the Bahamian capital can increase the arrivals impact from pre-COVID’s $380m high to close to $800m per annum if cruise passenger spending expands by $100 per person to fall into line with the Caribbean’s top performers.

Conceding that “getting those people off the ship and giving them more things to do” will be critical to achieving this ambition, he disclosed that Nassau’s cruise passenger arrivals for the 2022 fourth quarter had beaten 2019’s pre-pandemic performance - and in what was a record tourism year for The Bahamas - by almost 13,000.

Suggesting that this signals the cruise industry’s post-COVID recovery is complete, Mr Maura explained that his “$400m opportunity” estimate was derived from the 4.1m passengers forecast to arrive at Nassau Cruise Port in 2023 spending that extra $100 each. He added that 2022’s fourth quarter performance had surpassed pre-pandemic comparatives despite losing seven vessel calls to Tropical Storm Nicole.

“When we talk about getting more persons off the ship, and when we look regionally at the historical spend by cruise passengers in each destination, Nassau has traditionally been half of what the top spending destinations of St Maarten and St Thomas are,” Mr Maura told this newspaper. “Those passengers spend about $100 more there than they have in Nassau.

“With four million cruise passenger arrivals, and $100 in extra spending each, that’s $400m per year of new opportunity on top of the $380m they have already been spending with us. We have an opportunity to double the gross spending amount from the cruise sector coming to Nassau, going from $380m to around $800m by getting those people off the ship and giving them more to do.

“That’s what this new waterfront development [cruise port] in Nassau is all about, and why the Government is encouraged to support the development of these heritage sites throughout New Providence because these visitors really want to get to know us and understand our 500-year culture and history.”

The $300m transformation of Nassau Cruise Port, which will feature an amphitheatre, Junkanoo museum, retail, food and beverage, arts and crafts and other amenities that create a Bahamian ‘sense of place’, is intended to be the catalyst that drives more passengers off their vessels when in port as well as sparking other downtown Bay Street businesses, plus the likes of tour and excursion providers, to enhance their product offerings and drive greater visitor spend.

Mr Maura, meanwhile, said the platform to drive increased economic benefits for Bahamians was in place with cruise passenger numbers forecast to increase by 27.6 percent year-over-year in 2023. “Nassau Cruise Port finished the year with 3.313m passengers arriving on 1,140 ships,” he revealed of 2022, the first full year of post-COVID recovery for the cruise industry.

“Cruise traffic in 2019 to Nassau broke all previous records, with 3.85m passengers arriving on 1,206 ships, making it an exciting target for 2023. Comparisons to vessel and passenger counts reveal that 2022 had 5.5 percent fewer vessel calls than 2019, but 1 percent more than in 2018, while passenger volumes were 17 percent and 11 percent under 2019 and 2018, respectively.

“January 2022 began with vessel occupancy of 45 percent or the month’s ships averaging 1,148 passengers. By June 2022, vessel occupancy had climbed to 102 percent with ships averaging 3.312 passengers per call.” While increasing per capita cruise passenger spend will take some time, and not be accomplished in one year, Mr Maura said cruise ship berthings for 2023 are “solid”.

The 4.1m passengers forecast to arrive at Prince George’s Wharf in 2023 will exceed 2019’s performance by some 6.5 percent, while vessel calls are ahead by 3.6 percent or close to 50. “Our confirmed bookings are well ahead of 2019, and 2019 has been the benchmark as the record year that The Bahamas and Nassau enjoyed for most vessel calls and passengers ever having landed in the capital,” Mr Maura told this newspaper.

“And the 2022 fourth quarter marked the end of the recovery with total passenger volumes of 989,285 compared with 986,641 [in 2019]. It provided us with a passenger count around 13,000 higher than in 2019. It is definitely the springboard for what we will see in 2023. Our passenger forecasts for 2023 are over 4.1m and vessel calls are approximately 1,250, which will materially exceed 2019 for both counts.”

Mr Maura said the 2022 fourth quarter beat 2019 comparatives despite Nassau Cruise Port suffering the loss of seven potential vessel calls due to Tropical Storm Nicole. He added that the numbers being generated “bring a lot of confidence to the cruise industry itself, which has climbed what must have felt like a vertical cliff after coming to a standstill due to the pandemic.”

The Nassau Cruise Port chief described the sector as akin to “a hibernating bear that just woke up” given its rapid ascent from a total shutdown over the past 18 months. And, besides increased cruise passenger spending, Mr Maura said 2023’s forecast arrivals also represent “four million individual opportunities” that The Bahamas must seek to convert into high-yielding stopover visitors that take their next vacation in this country at a resort.

“From our perspective as a tourism destination, a tourism country, when we have 4m people come to visit on an annul basis that’s 4m individual opportunities to encourage those visitors to return, but the next time they return to fly into Nassau through Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) and stay in one of our resorts,” Mr Maura said. “That is when we will see visitor spending increase substantially above what the typical cruise passenger spends.”