* Nassau shatters visitor arrivals record
* First phase of Carnival’s new terminal to be completed in summer of 2025
By Kenneth Saunders
Multiple multi-million-dollar cruise port development projects have effectively positioned The Bahamas to achieve record levels of visitor arrivals way beyond 2024. While this year saw the celebration of several milestones for that nation’s busiest cruise port, 2025 promises even more as other port developments come to completion to further enhance the robust cruise tourism product that is The Bahamas.
Nassau Cruise Port (NCP), one of the world’s busiest cruise ports, started 2024 with an announcement that it had broken its passenger arrival record in 2023. The port welcomed 4.4 million passengers. This achievement could not have occurred in a more exciting year for NCP. The port was re-opened in May 2023 after a $300 million renovation. NCP continued its record-breaking trend through to year end, receiving on December 27, the largest ever number of passengers to arrive on a single day – 29,316 visitors.
The four-year port re-development by NCP and Global Port Holdings (GPH) has produced a significant upgrade of the facility. The addition of a new berth and the refurbishment of existing piers now gives NCP the capacity to accommodate six cruise ships, including three Icon class ships and up to 30,000 passengers daily.
Cruise Ports in Grand Bahama
The country’s second city is closer to welcoming its first guests at Carnival Corporation’s new Celebration Key Terminal. Described as the largest project of its kind undertaken by the corporation, the $600 million development is situated on the southeastern end of Freeport, Grand Bahama. The first phase of the cruise port is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2025.
Carnival is already thinking about future development. As Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line indicated: “As is fitting for our plans for Grand Bahama Island, our vision for Celebration Key is quite grand and we’re already thinking about the next phase of expansion and development.”
By its projected completion date of 2028, Celebration Key will have a total of four berths, all with the capacity to accommodate the Carnival’s Excel class ships. This gives the terminal the capacity to welcome over 4 million guests annually.
“With the start of this Carnival project, Grand Bahama is now on the better side of reaching its true economic potential,” said Philip Davis, Prime Minister of The Bahamas at the 2022 groundbreaking ceremony for the development attended by representatives from the government, the Grand Bahama Port Authority and Carnival Corporation.
“This investment will provide much needed jobs but will also signal new hope for the island’s recovery,” the Prime Minister said, alluding to the devastating effects of a series of storms to hit Grand Bahama in the past twenty years, including 2019’s Hurricane Dorian.
On the opposite end of Grand Bahama Island, plans are in place for re-development of the cruise port at Freeport Harbor. The project, to cost $80 million, is a joint venture which includes MSC Cruises, ITM and Royal Caribbean International (RCI). This re-development will give the facility the capacity to receive 20,000 passengers per day. Completion is set for 2026. []
- FIRST PUBLISHED December 20, 2024
#CruiseTourism #CaribbeanDevelopment #CaribbeanPorts
