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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
 K. Peter Turnquest, Deputy Leader of the Free National Movement (FNM) and MP for East Grand Bahama, issued the following statement on Cruise Lines leaving The Bahamas for other Caribbean countries:
“Incredibly, our economy continues on a death spiral. For nearly five years this inept PLP Government has dragged our economy, specifically our tourism industry, into the garbage. There are constant reminders every week of more hotels and resorts closing, more workers being laid off, and now we have cruise lines leaving our beautiful waters for other countries. On Tuesday, the Norwegian Cruise Line announced that they would be swapping its regularly scheduled stops in Nassau and Freeport for Havana, Cuba.
“This change in destinations will mean that The Bahamas will lose out on 25 cruises, which make stops in both Nassau and Freeport, in the second half of 2017. This will have major negative impact on our tourism industry. We will experience a loss of customers, a loss in revenues, and profits and an increase in our national debt. With the U.S.-Cuba relations on the mend, The Bahamas needs to work double time to ensure that other Cruise Lines do not end their calls on Bahamian ports. When companies start to leave The Bahamas and a trend is allowed to begin, it is hard to stop. This PLP Government has not been working to save these Cruise Lines from leaving rather they have focused solely on massive foreign-owned resorts. We need to catch ourselves from this death spiral quickly or we will be over the cliff before we know it.
“The FNM will bring diversity back to our beloved Bahamas. We will make every effort to revitalize Nassau and Freeport so that Cruise Lines do not want to leave our waters. The FNM is not just sitting ideally by; we have a plan to fix our tourism economy that includes an improved inter-Island air and cruise proposal. We cannot and will not be satisfied with a failing tourism industry and a failing economy. We can and will do better to save our country from the wreckage that the inept PLP Government has left us with. It is time for a thriving economy and that is only possible when the Bahamian people remove the PLP and elect the FNM to save our tourism industry.”
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