Royal Caribbean to increase cruises

[Jason]

In an effort to increase the over $50 million in revenue it brings to The Bahamas annually, Royal Caribbean International is seeking to forged even closer economic ties with the government.

At a cocktail reception on Tuesday hosted by Royal Caribbean, management of the cruise line liased with Prime Minister Perry Christie and other government officials. The aim was to maintain the lines of communications between the two and discuss ways that the company could further enhance their presence within The Bahamas.

In a brief discussion with the press, Adam Goldstein, executive vice president, brand operations, explained that the number of major interests Royal Caribbean has in The Bahamas is one of the reasons why the company believes it vital to build and maintain relationships with the country.

"We have been spending quite a bit of time over the last two years with the prime minister and a number of ministers in the government," he said. "We want to continue to reach out to the business community and make sure that people understand our presence here and that we want to be good citizens here in The Bahamas."

Between the company's two brands, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean International brings over 900,000 visitors per year to Nassau. The company has also recently began increasing the number of arrivals to Grand Bahama and also hopes to increase on the 500,000 guests visiting Coco Cay, the cruise lines private island in the Berry Islands.

He added that in addition to the ownership in the Berry Island, the company is also part owner of the dry dock facility in Grand Bahama and a minority investor in Black Beard's Island.

According to Mr. Goldstein, Royal Caribbean is looking to further increase its investment presence in the country and saw the ongoing developments in Grand Bahama as a positive sign. He said the company has a growing optimism over the possibility of increasing cruise passenger arrivals on that island. He also indicated that the company is also in the exploration stages of identifying another Bahamian destination for the cruise line.

"It's premature to say anything about that but everybody has an interest in that and we are keen to work with the government in that direction," he said.

Revealing that the cruise line has been calling on The Bahamas since the company's debut almost 30 years ago, Mr. Goldstein described the country as very "appealing" to Royal Caribbean's customer profile.

"We have people flying from all over the United States who have in mind a Bahamas-Caribbean experience with beautiful islands, beautiful beaches, friendly people, shopping opportunities, different kinds of excursions, history and cultural understanding," he said. "I think they perceive that The Bahamas has a range of attractions that they would like to have as part of the cruise."

Commenting briefly on his company's view of the US$20 regional head tax proposed by Caribbean countries as a means of rebalancing the imbalance between land-based and cruise tourism sectors, Mr. Goldstein said for Royal Caribbean, it was important that what the guests pays for in each port represents value for money.

"We feel like that's a dialogue we should have with each individual destination," he said.

The US$20 levy was just one of a number of proposals by regional tourism leaders last year aimed at creating a Regional Sustainable Tourism Development Fund to finance activities such as marketing, product development and tourism education among others for the region. Many cruise lines voiced their opposition to this proposal and some have attempted to lobby individual regional governments not to implement it.

Article by: Martella Mathews, Guardian Business Reporter