Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation, the Hon. Chester Cooper spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony for Royal Caribbean’s Royal Beach Club on Paradise Island on Monday.
In his remarks Cooper celebrated the success of the getting the project started and the impressive tourist arrival numbers. He said, “I want to point out that on average you would only attract 2700 guests here and on average we are receiving 27,000 guests into the Nassau Cruise Port everyday.”
He continued,” one percent of gross revenues derived from this establishment will go towards the Tourism Development Fund. The Tourism Development Fund is an offshoot of the Tourism Development Corporation designed specifically for empowering Bahamians in tourism related entities. And let me put this one percent in perspective, if Bahamians own 49% of this venture and if we’re getting 1% of gross revenues, in the final analysis we’ll be getting more than 50% of the earnings from this investment here.”
Former tourism minister, Dionisio D’Aguilar was also at the groundbreaking. He spoke with ZNS News on the sidelines expressing his pride in the project. “I’m extremely proud of our project here down at the Nassau Cruise Port. This was a $330 million investment which was under taken right at the height of COVID. So we were able to bring this project on stream right after COVID and it’s probably the main reason for the exponential growth in cruise tourism to The Bahamas.
The Royal Bahamas Club will be located on the western end of Paradise Island and its expected to open in 2025.
