![\"Festival](\"https:\/\/www.bahamastradeinfo.gov.bs\/buy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/08\/Festival-Place-Bahamas-300x225.jpg\")
Early stages of improving the visitor experience are underway<\/h3>\nEarly stages of improving the visitor experience are underway<\/h3>\nMinister of Tourism and Aviation Dionisio D\u2019Aguilar told\u00a0Guardian Business\u00a0yesterday that the government is looking at a proposal for the redevelopment of Nassau\u2019s cruise port, that was submitted during the tenure of the former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration and recently resubmitted.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Aguilar was responding to concerns that the government might have been looking at\u00a0proposals for the redevelopment of the port without putting the job out to tender. However, he said the Free National Movement (FNM) government rejected this particular proposal when\u00a0it came\u00a0to office last year, and asked the entity to resubmit one that was more \u201cbeneficial\u201d to the Bahamian people and more \u201ctransformative\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to D\u2019Aguilar, the government is still in the very early stages of trying to understand what to do with the cruise port to improve the visitor experience.<\/p>\n
He has said repeatedly that the port should be controlled by a public-private entity\u00a0similar to\u00a0Nassau Airport Development Company or\u00a0Arawak Port Development Limited.<\/p>\n
While nothing formal has been issued by the government in terms of asking for proposals, D\u2019Aguilar said due to the popularity of the government\u2019s position on the port, proposals have been\u00a0submitted unsolicited by companies and consortiums who think they have solutions for one of the Caribbean\u2019s busiest cruise ports.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in the infancy stage,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have had companies that have come forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
D\u2019Aguilar said government might issue a request for proposals (RFP) as it gets closer to understanding what to do with the port. He added that he knows of another group ready to issue a proposal to the government.<\/p>\n
The port\u2019s welcome center, known as Festival Place, had been undergoing renovations for a number of months under the former PLP administration. D\u2019Aguilar said last year that scarce resources caused the renovations to remain unfinished. The former administration, before it was voted out of office, seemed convinced however that a renovated Festival Place was to open imminently.<\/p>\n
He added that this country is still one of the most popular destinations for cruise lines sailing from the east coast of the United States to The Bahamas and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n
Source: Nassau Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Early stages of improving the visitor experience are underway Minister of Tourism and Aviation Dionisio D\u2019Aguilar told\u00a0Guardian Business\u00a0yesterday that the government is looking at a proposal for the redevelopment of Nassau\u2019s cruise port, that was submitted during the tenure of the former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration and recently resubmitted. D\u2019Aguilar was responding to concerns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":5928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n