Bahamas Holds Number One Cruise Position

Bahamas Holds Number One Cruise Position
By Stewart Miller

At mid-year The Bahamas continued to hold the top position in cruise passenger arrivals to the Caribbean region, although many neighbors have intensified their focus on the sector in a bid to attract more of those visitors.

According to preliminary data, The Bahamas saw 1.57 million cruise passengers up to July 8th 2011, the CHTA reporting a 16.3 percent growth year-on-year, while 2010 saw 3.8 million cruise passengers for the top spot – a 16.8 percent growth over 2009’s number.  But the Ministry of Tourism’s Director of Cruise Development Carla Stuart says last year several strong contenders posted even bigger growth rates and continued leadership in the sector cannot be taken for granted.

The growth rate in Cozumel, Mexico, may have slowed somewhat in 2011, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’s (CHTA) preliminary results showing an 8.4 percent year-on-year increase to July 8th for 1.37 million passengers – a little more than the 1.34 million The Bahamas had counted at the same point last year, but still about 195k less than this year’s July 8th mark.

It was St. Maarten, however, that has Stuart’s attention.  The small country in the Eastern Caribbean is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and occupies the southern half of St. Martin Island -- its French neighbors occupying the northern half. Preliminary data from the CHTA shows a 24.5 percent growth rate in its cruise numbers for 2010, with 21.5 percent increase estimated for the year through to July 8th.  The island saw 1.51 million cruiser passengers last year, and put up 659,000 at the near mid-year point for 2011.

St. Maarten has been building up its cruise operations, in 2006 investing about $97.5 million for a cruise facility expansion project, according to Stuart.  She said indications are that two major cruise line companies had each put up $40 million as a loan for that project.

In 2008 the Jamaican government undertook a $224 million commitment to develop a cruise port facility in Falmouth.  As a part of that undertaking, Royal Caribbean guaranteed 400,000 cruise visitors over a 4-year period.  It followed a $40 million expansion of Montego Bay’s cruise facilities in 2005.

The Bahamas has made upgrades in recent years too, most notably the dredging of Nassau Harbor, part of a $44 million project completed in April 2009 that allows the harbor to accommodate mega cruise ships like Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.