New Cruise Port Coming to The Bahamas? What We Know So Far Concerning the Distant Island

Cruise traces are all the time on the lookout for new locations to supply their passengers, and the most recent information out of The Bahamas might result in a brand-new port of name on the itinerary sooner or later.

The Bahamian authorities has formally moved ahead with a growth mission for the distant island of Mayaguana, the nation’s easternmost island.

For a spot that has remained virtually untouched by main tourism for years, this newest information might put the island on each cruise traveler’s radar, despite the fact that cruises to Turks and Caicos repeatedly move proper by the 110 sq. mile island.

Mayaguana is about 66 miles west of Turks and Caicos.

The Undertaking

In keeping with a press launch from the Workplace of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, the event, referred to as “The Port at Mayaguana,” is a Public-Non-public Partnership. 

It’s objective to show this remoted island right into a strategic crossroads.

The assertion mentions that the mission is a “main maritime and logistics mission meant to strengthen financial exercise in Mayaguana and throughout the South East Bahamas.”

As a result of it sits proper on the sting of the archipelago, it’s very well positioned for each cargo ships and cruise ships.

A Phased Plan for the Island

Since Mayaguana at the moment has little or no infrastructure and solely about 300 residents, the builders are taking a phased strategy.

The federal government said that this association “positions Mayaguana to play a stronger position in regional commerce, cruise exercise, and associated companies.”

They aren’t dropping hundreds of cruise vacationers off on day one.  The plan is split into three distinct phases to make sure the island can deal with the expansion:

• Section 1: Building of a “Momentary Marine Offloading Facility” and a deep water port.
• Section 2: The development of a devoted cruise ship terminal.
• Section 3: Growth right into a deep water port and terminal for bigger vessels.

This timeline permits the island to improve its energy, water, and housing to help the “roughly 2,000 full time jobs” the mission crew anticipates over the lifetime of the mission.

Why Cruise Traces are Eyeing This Space

For cruise traces, Mayaguana’s location is its greatest promoting level. Since it’s the easternmost level of the Bahamas, many ships touring to the Southern Caribbean or the Panama Canal already sail proper previous it.

The Prime Minister’s workplace famous that the island’s location “locations the island at a crossroads between the Americas and Europe.”  That is useful for each the cruise trade and delivery trade alike.

Mayaguana additionally gives one thing that fashionable ports of name like Nassau merely can’t. As the larger ports develop into extra crowded, having a cease on an island recognized for distant and secluded seashores and pristine reefs offers cruise traces a novel expertise to promote to their passengers.

However in fact, for the brand new port to stay “off the overwhelmed path” it additionally has to restrict the variety of guests in any given time interval.  It’s the cautious stability each small cruise port has to take into accounts.

The mission is now transferring into the planning phases, together with “financial and environmental assessments, stakeholder engagement, regulatory approvals, and detailed designs.”

It is going to be a number of years earlier than we see the primary cruise ships docking on the new location if all the pieces goes in accordance with plan, however the transformation of essentially the most distant island within the Bahamas is formally underway.