NASSAU, BAHAMAS — With the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affecting the way the cruise industry will operate going forward, and the impact it will have on countries that service them like The Bahamas, a senior US-based financial advisor has suggested that the government should be looking to “restructure” its agreements with the cruise lines.
André Wright, executive vice president of the Standard International Group, the New York City-based boutique financial advisory firm he founded in 1996, said in an interview with Eyewitness News: “We think there would need to be a restructuring of cruise line agreements once the cruise lines are able to come back to sea because their protocols are going to be different, their dynamics are going to be different and it will have a larger impact on countries that service cruise ships.”
Prior to the pandemic, The Bahamas recorded 5.78 million cruise passengers in 2019, with a record-breaking 7.2 million tourist arrivals that year.
Downtown Nassau has been a ghost town since cruise lines stopped sailing last year, with the cruise industry coming to a standstill in the wake of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) no-sail order issued at the onset of the pandemic.
The CDC has since issued guidance for cruise ship operations in light of COVID-19, with some major cruise lines eyeing a return to the seas in March and April.
Wright said: “I would say that overall the government and the authorities need to be looking at more of a partnership where for the last 10 years it has not been a partnership.
“The government and the community was not in tandem with the cruise lines, particularly in the experiences that the passengers have.
“The Bahamas is unique because it has a number of islands and the cruise lines have been interested in purchasing them as destinations for their carriers. I think that’s something to be careful of in that it should be inclusive.
“You see where cruise lines would go to places where there are multiple islands or docks and they have been somewhat manipulative, taking some of the experiences they would have onshore and putting that on the ship.
“I would say [what] is needed is more of a partnership that is equitable.”
