The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A SENIOR tourism official yesterday attributed the 6.4 percent decline in year-over-year sea arrivals to Abaco through July to the impact of boating fee hikes as industry operators were urged to rapidly adapt to the evolving artificial intelligence (AI) environment.

Kerry Fountain, the Bahama Out Island Promotion Board’s executive director, told the Abaco Business Outlook that the drop-off over the first seven months of 2026 was to “be expected” because the revised fee structure, which lowered many fees and created two new cruising permit fee categories, had yet to kick-in.

“You have to provide the Government with facts. You cannot provide them with figures,” Mr Fountain said of the negotiations over the boating fee revisions. “It’s like going to then bank and asking for a loan. You have got to present the facts. You have to be patient, and you have to sell it.”

The Government created two new classes of cruising permit fees - one for short-term stays of 30 days or less, and the other covering six months or less. The 30-day fees for vessels less than 50 feet in length are between 50-70 percent lower than those associated with the pre-existing one-year permit.

Besides the two new cruising permit categories, the Government also sought to clear-up confusion over whether the anchorage fees implemented with the 2025-2026 Budget apply to both vessels docked in marinas or those anchored out. Materials issued to Customs officers plainly state that these fees must only be paid by the latter, adding: “Only pleasure vessels entering that are not docking at a marina are subject to anchorage fees.”

The Government in June revised the anchorage fees to incorporate the two new cruising permit categories, with the charges based on length of vessel and stay. For example, foreign pleasure vessels less than 30 feet in length - and cleared into The Bahamas on a 30-day cruising permit - will pay a $50 anchorage fee.

That is just 25 percent, or one-quarter, of the $200 that boats with a 12-month permit, and less than 50 feet in length, will pay. The reductions are even greater the larger the vessel is, with boats 100 feet or more in length paying a $200 anchorage fee on a 30-day permit - a sum that is less than one-seventh of the $1,500 paid for a 12-month stay.

Meanwhile, Andre Miller, the Ministry of Tourism’s executive director of global communications, warned the same conference that Bahamian resorts, attraction and excursion providers and other tourism operators will increasingly lose business and get left behind if they fail to configure their websites such that they are not easily picked up by AI-related searches.

“If your website is not optimal for persons to find what it is you are trying to export in terms of sales, experiences, and so on and so forth, you are going to be falling short because the competition is stiff and it is becoming even stiffer now with the advancement of AI and technology,” Mr Miller said.

He added that Google searches for information are set to increasingly be replaced by Chat GPT and other AI-related search engines. “The short answer is that you have to refit your website so that it answers the question,” Mr Miller added. “If you are familiar with Chat GPT or AI-related bots, and you are not coming up on their searches, you are missing out on opportunities.”

Mr Miller said the Ministry of Tourism is presently developing its own data colllation platform to give industry stakeholders access to the latest data and analysis. “We need to be in a better position to know exactly where our hard-earned dollars can be spend more efficiently to generate hard-earned business in this fierce and more competitive landscape as it relates to tourism marketing,” he added.

The Ministry of Tourism is developing “a new state-of-the-art” platform as a resource that will allow Bahamian tourism operators to data that will “make your business much smarter”. But Mr Miller added: “I would impress on everyone to take a step and look internally at what you collecting as primary data.”

Explaining that he was referring to guest e-mail addresses and contact information, as well as website data, Mr Miller reiterated: “If your website is not optimised for AI, and you are not working to optimise it for AI as it is now, you will be missing out on considerable opportunities when persons are searching for knowledge.”