NASSAU, The Bahamas -- The Bahamas is one of three priority cruise destinations invited by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., (RCL) to receive a matching grant to participate in the Sustainable Destination Alliance for the Americas (SDAA) initiative.

 RCL collaborated with mutual partners at Sustainable Travel International, Organization of American States (OAS) and Caribbean Tourism Organization to create the SDAA, which is an initiative that aims to greatly enhance how tourism is managed at a destination level and improve its future prospects and ability to compete by embedding sustainability into destination strategies and day-to-day management and marketing.

American Congress of Ministers and High-Level Authorities of Tourism in Director General of Tourism Joy Jibrilu, who will attend the OAS 22ndBarbados, September 2014, said sustainable development is something of which The Bahamas is cognizant because the country is a Small Island Developing State.

She explained that one of the important features of the initiative is the attention it will be giving to the Port in Nassau: “the Port is where the majority of the approximately five million tourists arrive, and so whatever we can do to improve, grow and ultimately sustain the Port in an environmentally responsible way, will benefit everyone including the visitors, cruise lines and Bahamians.” The Bahamas’ participation in the initiative is important because tourism alone provides an estimated 60 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product and employs about half the Bahamian work force.