By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
The Government is targeting a near-28 per cent increase in cruise passenger spending yields to generate an extra $90 million in annual tourism revenue, a Cabinet Minister said yesterday.
Dionisio D’Aguilar, minster of tourism, who was the keynote speaker at the Abaco Business Outlook conference, also vowed to “get tough” with cruise lines and “change the way we do business” to ensure their passengers spend more in the Bahamas with local firms.
He added that 70 per cent of the Bahamas’ six million-plus annual visitors are cruise passengers, and said: “The cruise ship visitor spends an average of $70, while the stopover visitors spend an average of $1,500.
“In the short-term we are aiming to induce our cruise ship visitors to spend $20 more within our destination. The average spend right now is about $70 per person, and we want to get it to $90. This near-28 per cent increase in cruise spend will net $90 million in additional revenue. In tandem with increasing cruise visitor spend, we are working to get as many cruise visitors as we can to become return stopover visitors.”
Mr D’Aguilar said the Ministry of Tourism will seek to act as a “buffer”, and negotiate with the cruise lines on behalf of Bahamian entrepreneurs to ensure they capture more business from the cruise ships.
“Previous governments have given these cruise ships these islands, and they take the tourists to these islands and that’s not really helping Bahamians because, for instance, they are bringing food off the ship,” the Minister said.
“You may be able to sell some art or craft, but they tell their passengers not to bring any money with them and, as a result, we are not feeling anything economically. We incentivise them based on the number of passengers that they bring.”
Mr D’Aguilar added: “We need to look at what is the economic impact, and base the incentive on that and not the number. If passengers come to Nassau and never get off the boat, we still have to incentivise them.
“We need to be able to partner and see how we can get visitors to spend more. We owe these cruise ship companies tens of millions of dollars. That’s the deal we struck and we’re just so scared. Get ready when I get tough with them and they threaten to pull their ships. We have to get tough with them in order to change the way they see us and do business with us.
“We have something they need, which is those islands,” the Minister continued. “If you want to go to those islands you have to come to Nassau, Freeport or whatever the major population centres are and get visitors to spend. They have made substantial investments on those islands and that is something we have to leverage.”
Mr D’Aguilar’s comments hit on a strategy that many in the tour operator/excursion provider industry have advocated for years, namely using the cruise lines’ Bahamian private islands as a method to extract more favourable terms for locals and their businesses.
Under the US Jones Act, foreign-flagged vessels such as the cruise ships have to first call at a foreign port before they can return home to the US. This made the Bahamas a natural stop on the three, four and even five-night cruises, but Cuba’s opening up has whittled away this advantage and strategy./
And this is not the first time Mr D’Aguilar has threatened to ‘get tough’ with the cruise lines. He did similar in slamming as “reprehensible” the threat by a major cruise line to terminate Bahamian tour operators’ contracts if they direct-sell to passengers without its permission.
His pledge came after Tribune Business obtained a copy of Norwegian Cruise Line’s (NCL) August 30 warning letter demanding that Bahamian shore excursion providers “discontinue this practice immediately”.
Promising to confront the cruise lines on the issue, Mr D’Aguilar said he “completely agrees” that NCL’s letter amounts to ‘restraint of trade’ and anti-competitive practices that have left Bahamian companies earning mere “crumbs” for years.
The Minister yesterday noted that destinations such as Aruba and St Marten were generating cruise passenger spend in the range of $180-$190 per person.
“They somehow have it in their head that they get better deals in those places, so maybe I have to speak to the Minister of Finance about removing duty on clothes and electronics, which seem to be a heavy buy for them when they get to the southern Caribbean,” Mr D’Aguilar said.
On other issues, the Minister said the Government was “in kind of a dilemma” over its fiscal position “because we use government to create employment”.
He added: “There is a desire to make that change. The problem is the political will. This government understands that we have slipped considerably in the ease of doing business. It’s a frustrating barrier; a whole lot of government is into job preservation and job growth.”
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 6 months ago
Anyone know what D'Aguilar is trying to say or failed to elaborate on when it comes to his assertion that our government owes tens of millions of dollars to the cruise ship companies?
Reality_Check 6 years, 6 months ago
In other words, we can expect the Minnis-led FNM government to further grow the already grotesquely bloated size of our government because these are the only jobs they can create. Yep, government's taxation needs will continue to increase while the private sector tax base continues to shrink. And many of us know all too well how this folly is going to end in the not too distant future!
proudloudandfnm 6 years, 6 months ago
Cool. Can you please spend a million or two of that in Freeport? Maybe subsidize electricity for the unemployed? Temporarily raise social services pay outs?
CAN YOU PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE YEAR OLD ECONOMIC CRISIS IN FREEPORT FOR GOD'S SAKE?!?!?!??
sheeprunner12 6 years, 6 months ago
Mr. D'Aguilar ........... Please close down the "private cruise ship islands" and mandate that these ships make scheduled stops to each of the main islands ......... Every frigging cruise ship that passes through The Bahamas sails right past Long Island (to and from The Caribbean) and do not stop ........... the same can be said for most Bahamian islands ........ If you want to help this country get more money from the cruise ships, give the tourists and the islanders more options in the country to tour, see the native culture and experience the real Bahamas ....... get out of the Nassau ghetto mindset
TalRussell 6 years, 6 months ago
Comrade Dionisio D’Aguilar is exactly what he sounds like. Someone who wants to act as a "buffer" to tell cruise ship owners, why it's possible to induce their millions passengers to 'up' the average $70 purchase price currently being spent for 'crappy' items/services bought from tourism vendors - to $90 for the same 'crappy' purchases.
{ I couldn't possibly have made up 'Buffer' Dionisio Aguilar's 'crappy idea' attempt at peddling $70 crap for $90 }.
Comrade 'Buffer' Dionisio, is confusing cruise ships owners and their passengers - with transporting to our shores - peoples from another far away planet?
Bonefishpete 6 years, 6 months ago
So the government is going to force these cruise ships dock and off load passengers into Nassau where cruise passengers Do Not want to go. Maybe side trips to Over The Hill.
BONEFISH 6 years, 6 months ago
The government has a weak hand in talks with the cruise lines. The city of Nassau and it's cruise port has no must see attractions for tourists and locals.
sheeprunner12 6 years, 6 months ago
Well ......... read my post ....... Why does everything have to centre on Nassau???
paul_vincent_zecchino 6 years, 6 months ago
The US State Department, in light of recent disabling sonic attacks on US diplomats - a clear act of war - has advised Americans against travel to Cuba, for fear the same may befall them.
The castro crime syndicate just couldn't help itself, couldn't keep a lid on its idiotic predatory instincts. Obama handed the castro crime syndicate a blank check in his lopsided deal.
All Cuba had to do was plow American tourist dollars into its crumbling buildings, roads, water mains and electric grid, to improve accomodations and make the island yet more enticing.
But oh no, instead it's the same old 'get the yanqui gringo devils' at all cost, starting with sonic attacks on diplomat staff.
Cuba had its last chance to join the twenty first century, under Obama. It blew it. As does it always.
Good news for the Bahamas. For Cuba, not so good.
As for Norwegian Cruise Lines, this hamfisted attempt at prior restraint comes as no surprise. It's of a piece with other questionable policies implemented by CEO, Frank DelRio.
It was DeRio's big idea to spurn the Bahamas in favor of Cuba. To do so, he raised cruise fares likely to pay off the thugs in the castro crime syndicate.
Mr. DelRio acquired Norwegian in a typical 90s 'minnow eats whale' business gambit. He got NCL to buy his small cruise line, and then without explanation, Mr. Sheehan, the CEO who made NCL into the fine company it is, was suddenly out and DelRio was in.
DelRio, according to published reports, has said he has several ideas for extracting more money from passengers. Nice, tells you plenty, doesn't it?
Apparently, he believes Americans are all dopes with their money.
And now, seems, he believes he can dictate the manner in which Bahamian businesses operate.
Who does he think he is, telling Bahamian business owners they must contract with cruise passengers thru him, rather than directly?
As someone who regularly visits Nassau with family and friends, we make arrangements with Avis for a car on our own, and DelRio can dislike it all he wants. But he will not dictate our business dealings in the Bahamas.
Given his seemingly mendacious approach and reported viewing of passengers as sheep to be shorn, he may not be around all that long.
As to Cuba? It blew it. Stop worrying about Cuba. None of us will go there until the last of the castroite thugs is dead or gone.
Porcupine 6 years, 6 months ago
I guess you missed the last 60 years of true history regarding Cuba's attempts to fulfill their acknowledged obligations to the people. Every moment of everyday for the last generation the Cubans and their government were provoked, harassed, blockaded and attacked by their wonderful neighbor to the north. Paul, where has your head been these last 60 years? Do you actually read? What on god's earth could leave you so delusional? Seriously?
paul_vincent_zecchino 6 years, 6 months ago
Thanks for the nice example of boilerplate commie bullshxx.
Too bad no one's buying it.
Cuba trades with more than one hundred countries, and is well known for stiffing them every chance.
None of the money spent in Cuba benefits the Cuban people as goons collect it from small shops in order to kick it upstairs to crime boss Raul.
There's no blockade, goofball, in case you hadn't notices. A trade embargo is not the same as a naval blockade.
Thousands of innocents are dead thanks to the castro crime syndicate and the useful idiots in America who make excuses for these thugs.
Next time, try to cite a fact or two rather than rote insults, moralistic scoldings, and puerile emotional outbursts.
Oh, that's right, you can't, because facts and truth and logic come hard to the Left.
Keep it up. If Cuba's so great and America is so awful, why have thousands risked their lives in shark infested waters to get here by any means possible?
Last I checked, Americans weren't rafting to Puerto san Lucia or Sagua la Grande, were they?
Nice try. Now go back to your cell meeting and collect your peanut shells from SoreStinkos.
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