By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
Nassau Cruise Port’s top executive yesterday said Tropical Storm Nicole has likely cost the capital some 27,000 visitors this week after almost one-third of its vessel arrivals cancelled.
Michael Maura, the Prince George Wharf operator’s chief executive, agreed with Tribune Business that what was supposed to have been the week representing the start of the winter cruise season “bump” had become a temporary bump in the road due to the storm’s emergence.
Based on numbers he provided, the storm appears to have cost Nassau Cruise Port some 6.5 percent of its November passenger forecast and a similar percentage of its anticipated vessel calls. Mr Maura confirmed that half the eight cancellations, those involving the Enchantment of the Seas on Monday; the Disney Wish and Liberty of the Seas yesterday; and Freedom of the Seas today came following calls from the cruise lines themselves.
The other half, namely the Carnival Liberty, Independence of the Seas, Carnival Sunshine and Anthem of the Seas were due to the Port Department’s decision to close all Bahamian ports with effect from 7am yesterday morning due to the approaching storm.
“I went back and looked at the passenger counts they carried last time they were in port, and combined they would have totalled 27,000 passengers,” Mr Maura explained of how he came up with the number. “That would have been the passenger impact to downtown Nassau and the cruise port.
“It’s the first week of the bump in winter traffic coming out of the summer. We were used to seeing anywhere from 16 to 17, maybe 18, vessel calls per week in the summer season. Moving into winter, with November having arrived, we would see our numbers climb to 25 to 26 vessel calls per week, and climb as high as the mid-30s per week in the coming months.
“Most definitely, with the start of the winter season we would have seen around 25 vessel calls this week but eight were cancelled and went to ports elsewhere. Nassau has felt the impact of it, and Freeport as well to a lesser extent because they don’t have as much cruise traffic,” he added.
“This is November. We’re supposed to be looking at Christmas, not thinking of hurricanes. This is just a bump in the road, soon to be forgotten as we see the return of a strong winter season.” Mr Maura said Nicole’s fall-out will drop forecast vessel calls on Nassau to 110 for November.
“Leading up to this week, and prior to the arrival of this storm, we had forecasted 118 cruise calls for the month of November,” he told Tribune Business. “With the loss of eight calls, we have adjusted downward and are now expecting 110. For December we have forecast 121 calls.
“We had forecasted, prior to this storm, 411,570 total passengers for November and now that will have to be adjusted downwards by approximately 27,000. Then in December, which we do not expect to be negatively impacted by storms such as this, our 121 calls are forecast to bring 412,634 passengers.”
Mr Maura said Nicole’s centre was projected to track sufficiently far north such that the cruise port’s ongoing construction as part of its $300m transformation project will “not be negatively impacted in any way”. And the storm should clear Florida on Friday, enabling cruise ship home port turnarounds - the majority of which take place at the weekend - to occur as normal.
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