$300M Nassau cruise port set to open for May 2023

By Sherrica Thompson

Staff Writer

#TheBahamas, December 6, 2022 – The Bahamas will soon see a boost to its tourism and job market as its redeveloped $300M Nassau Cruise Port will have its “grand opening” in late May 2023.

In providing an update on the port recently, Chief Executive of the Nassau Cruise Port Mike Maura explained the port was scheduled to open earlier.

“We had a meeting with the Prime Minister on Wednesday, and it was agreed that the grand opening would be the last weekend of May.

“We had looked at having it earlier in May, but King Charles decided to be coronated around May 5 or May 6, and that meant the Prime Minister would be away, and we wanted to be sure that the Prime Minister is here for that grand opening,” Maura said.

Maura noted that once the port is completed, it will be able to accommodate three Oasis class ships at the same time, along with other vessels.

“We had expected to be finished long before the last weekend of May 2023, but the pandemic has had its fun with us. Once completed, we will be able to handle comfortably three Oasis ships at the same time and three other vessels for a total of six,” he said.

The Chief Executive noted that the port’s passenger capacity will also increase as the port will be able to host 13, 000 more passengers per day from the 20,000 passengers it could previously host.

The Nassau Cruise Port is expected to have welcomed about 3.2 million passengers by year’s end, and in 2023 that number is expected to increase to approximately four million and 4.5 million in 2024.

The cruise port is also expected to provide hundreds of jobs for Bahamians through businesses and facilities that will be operating at the site.