Bahamas Chamber of Commerce Chairman, Michael Maura, sees the impending expansion of the Nassau Cruise Port as an opportunity to expand the Bahamas’ economy, particularly Nassau. As he puts it- one of the underlining components of  the port development project in itself must be what economic value will it have to The Bahamas.

“What we do know is that we have hundreds of new vessels, new cruise ships that are coming out of these new yards over the next five to ten years. Its reported that there’s I think, 20 new cruise companies, that are being created right now. 

“Virgin got into the cruise line business within the last year. What has to happen is that basically you have more ships coming and these ships are bigger, there has to be some changes made to Prince George Wharf to accommodate these larger vessels and more of them. 

“You can leave it as it is, but what that just means is that the market share for New Providence is actually going to decline as oppose to grow and expand in relationship with the expansion within industry itself,” Mr. Maura said. 

As anticipation of the re-development of the Nassau Cruise Port increases, Mr. Maura says the expansion should be a celebration for Bahamians particularly tour operators.

“I would say that from a taxi driver, tour operator, retail operator perspective one, personally I think it’s a celebration because you’re looking at this expansion, it’s going to take our tourism arrivals from about 3.6 million to an estimated 5 million. 

“So, that means more opportunity to put people in my taxi, to give more tours, to sell more goods to. 

“And I would also say that from a taxi, [and] from a tour operations perspective what you want to do is make sure that everything is fair in terms of the processing and handling of customers, so that everybody has an opportunity to participate and that as they say a rising tide should float all boats. 

And so, that’s really what I think the focus is and I can tell you that’s what my concern and my effort would go into is just making sure that this is something that benefits the majority of Bahamians,” Mr. Maura said. 

Recently taxi drivers said they would not be left out of the port’s redevelopment and pledged to be an integral part of negotiations. 

Just last month, Global Holdings Limited signed a contract for the re-development of the Prince George Wharf. The expansion includes a $250 million transformation