Bahamas Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar revealed that in the past, Bahamian government had spent up to US$12 million per year on incentives paid to cruise lines so that they would bring travellers to the island. The government, however, no longer sees that as a good deal.
According to Nassau Guardian, D’Aguilar said that cruise companies are very profitable and make a lot of money. He asked why the country was paying them to bring cruise passengers to port Nassau, and then some cruisers were not coming off: "...why are we giving incentives for people to come to Nassau and sit on the boat, eat their food and not spend money in our country?”
The fact that a lot of passengers now opt to stay onboard the cruise ships that brought them is not news to anyone who spends time on message boards, where people often complain about many things: from the lack of interesting things to do in port Nassau to the army of vendors and cab drivers one must fight past to get anywhere.
Minister D’Aguilar hopes that the under-discussion redevelopment program would do exactly that. The goal, he added, was that upon completion there would be better offering of excursions, goods, food and beverage options that would leave crew and passengers wanting to come ashore.