Executives of the Straw Business Persons Society including Reverend Esther Thompson, B.Th., JP, President (second from right); Mrs. Laverne Crawley, JP, Vice President (far left); and Ms. Rebecca Small, VP of Communication (far right), announce their support for Nassau Cruise Port Ltd. while meeting with Colin Murphy, Head of Business Development, The Americas, at Global Ports Holding.

Nassau, Bahamas – Executives of the Straw Business Persons Society have declared their support for Nassau Cruise Port Ltd., the company that would operate the cruise port if the Global Ports Holding (GPH) bid for its redevelopment is successful.

“We are not seeing as many tourists in the Straw Market as we used to,” explained Reverend Esther Thompson, President of the Straw Business Persons Society. “We need foot traffic. We have 500 stalls in our Bay Street Market right now that have the potential to provide for 500 families. A mega-project like this one can do miracles for all 500 business owners and for our entire economy, considering that new money is injected into our economy daily through sales from these businesses. Additionally, this is an avenue that will contribute to the stability of our Foreign Reserves once it’s done the right way. That’s why the Government needs to choose the best partner for the project.”

Reverend Thompson continued, “We believe that the Global Ports Holding plan will help address many of the challenges that our members and other downtown merchants are facing. We’re very impressed by their background and the amount of success that they have achieved worldwide. Simply making the port more efficient will not be enough. We want real change and we believe they can deliver. Our livelihoods depend on this.”