BEST Concerned By Channel Proposals
The Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce [BEST] is concerned with the possible ecological and economic impacts of widening the island’s shipping channels to accommodate mega-cruise ships.
In its December newsletter, BEST published an executive summary of its response to Government’s Shipping Channel Survey, arguing large-scale dredging should not even be considered before the National Tourism Plan outlining a new direction for the island’s hospitality industry is released next year.
“BEST firmly believes that Bermuda’s unique advantages must be recognised, preserved, and developed into a bespoke tourism product, or products, ideally as part of a comprehensive tourism plan,” said the organisation. “Undertaking the work and investment required to widen Bermuda’s shipping channels purely in the interests of accommodating larger cruise ships could well be both environmentally and economically disastrous.
“Raising our air arrival numbers to those achieved as late as 2007 could have an equivalent annual economic impact to improving access to all three ports.”
The organisation describes its mission as preserving and enhancing the quality of life in Bermuda for present and future generations by promoting discussion, raising awareness and affecting change in the pursuit of sustainable management and development of Bermuda’s physical, social and economic environment.
Earlier this month Hamilton Mayor Charles Gosling said Bermuda’s failure to modernise its cruise infrastructure so the island’s two main ports — Hamilton and St. George’s — could accomodate mega-ships is the reason why shipping lines are cutting back on visits here.
Executive Summary of BEST’s response to the Bermuda Shipping Channel Study:
Capital-intensive projects such as widening the shipping channels should not even be entertained prior to the development of a Long-term National Tourism Plan.
BEST firmly believes that Bermuda’s unique advantages must be recognised, preserved, and developed into a bespoke tourism product, or products, ideally as part of a comprehensive tourism plan.
Undertaking the work and investment required to widen Bermuda’s shipping channels purely in the interests of accommodating larger cruise ships could well be both environmentally and economically disastrous.
Raising our air arrival numbers to those achieved as late as 2007 could have an equivalent annual economic impact to improving access to all three ports.
The general consensus amongst channel study investigators was that ecological impacts on the Bermuda marine environment resulting from channel modifications are a considerable concern.
As stated in the fine print of the study, the additional revenues generated by increased cruise ship arrivals would themselves be insufficient to support the channel improvements and general tax revenues would therefore be necessary to subsidise the construction.
Even if the large-scale and expensive channel improvements suggested in the study are undertaken, we could easily again find ourselves in the same position we find ourselves today in just another ten or twenty years given current trends in cruise ship development.
Should any work even be considered, the quality of the environmental and field studies should under no circumstances be compromised to accelerate a channel improvement process given the huge potential for both negative environmental and economic impacts that could result.
On average, a land-based tourist has a direct economic impact that is nearly seven times greater than that of a cruise-based tourist and this
overall economic impact is better diffused across the island.It is predominantly the expenditure by air arrivals that supports our 2,297 hotel industry workers and many others in the hospitality industry.
It would be useful to consider the potential conflicts between cruise and land-based visitors and the effects that these may have on visitor experiences before making any decisions to increase the lower-spending
component.Improving public transportation may prove critical to maintaining, let alone increasing, the number of cruise visitors now disembarking in Dockyard and could also greatly assist in diffusing the economic impact of cruise passengers to other parts of the island.
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Category: All, Environment, News
Just a thought. Why is it that to preserve the serenity, beauty and purity of Bermuda that the cruise lines can not anchor offshore? This is done in Belize where a ride on a tender of about 30 minutes to shore is done. I am aware that there is many Coral areas around the Island but I also believe that there ARE areas where vessels can drop anchor and tender people in. This action would produce jobs for captains of charter vessels that would be hired by the cruise lines to transport cruise passengers to and from St. Georges & Hamilton. It would also help to preserve the Eco system of Bermuda. If this could be done, than Bermuda could continue to sustain it’s cruise docking areas AND have the availability of extra tourists by having cruise ships anchored offshore. Just a thought….
Would you feel comfortable as a the tourism minister, the premeire, a cruise rep or tourist relying on the ferrys here? Probably not a bad idea in principle…but I cant see it been a good thing here.
Timothy. One reason that this won’t work is that it makes too much sense. Government will not hear of it because of that fact alone. Our politicians would much prefer to widen the cut by 120 feet in order to accommodate and extra 10 (yes ten) feet of cruise ship width. This sounds so ridiculous to anyone of reason, but to a politician this is the way to go. Insane to anyone of sound mind – but a splendid idea to those in charge of ruining Bermuda. I can only conclude that this study was done by the same people who decided it was a good idea to charge twice as much for our shortest ferry ride, as for our longest ferry ride.
In conclusion: There’s not a brain cell between them. We are in deep doo doo.
easier said then done. When the ship isn’t at a dock you cant really enjoy the Island. I have been on a cruise to (can’t exactly remember which Island) but the last tender stopped well before you could enjoy the night life.
Maybe Ganja….BUT, as my mom used to tell me, “Half a slice of pie is better than NO slice of pie”!! Bermuda could have the normal amount of ships in port and have those anchored offshore as an added bonus to the Islands tourism. The issue with the end time of the tenders can be worked out with the tender operators which I am sure would appreciate the added business!!
That might be so , but our slice has already been cut in half, and will get thinner after 2013.
ps…you mean like it is in Bermuda now with ferries stopping at 8:30-9 ….and every tourist i talked to this summer…….hundreds,……..ALL hated being stuck in Dockyard….
No, that’s NOT what I mean. The ferry operators on Bermuda are contracted by the Island where PRIVATE tender operators who own or lease their own vessels to operate contract with individual Cruise Lines. If you get stuck in the dockyard or ANYWHERE after being advised of transport times, that’s YOUR bad, NOT anyone elses. Bad planning on your part does NOT constitute an emergency on anyone else’s part! On many a cruise to Bermuda, I have witnessed people left on the dock only to be taken out to meet the ship by another means at their own expense.
This was directly caused by our brilliant politicians deciding to build TWO docks at the end of the island with only two restaurants and one road out of dodge. Then they created a man made beach. My God these people deserve all the criticism they get’.
….and yet we still vote these jokers in each election. I guess that’s where the term ‘Dom Bermujan’ came from.
While I am no fan of the current government, I gotta set the record straight. They built one cruise ship dock (Heritage Wharf, at the cost of three docks). There are four four restaurants, five if you include Hammerheads at Snorkel Park, the location of the man made beach which has been there for over ten years and was/is privately built and maintained.
Tough call. While it is well known that cruise visitors do not contribute anywhere near the benefit that the air visitor does, it is the Bemrudians themselves who are not ready for air visitors to return. The poor attitude towards so called servitude jobs has to change before any improvement at the airport arrivals hall will happen.
We are left with accomodating the ships or getting out of tourism completly. We are not doing a very good job of serving the ships as it is. Again, it is a human problem, not an infrastructure problem.
Being able to dock in Hamilton & St Georges will reduce the human transport problem & also encourage business in those ports, though a drastic change in attitude of many sales clerks is needed there too.
I’ll give former Premier Brown credit where due. He advocated widening, at least the St Georges channel & warned of the trend to the panamax ships. Too bad that while doing that he was also busy with other questionable financial ventures.
Now Bermuda is broke with nothing to show for it. No deep & wide channels. No new causway.
These cruise ship passengers spend little in Bermuda. A huge amount of revenue from Government is required for the infrastructure to provide services to these visitors, so the Government probably does not make much of a return either (if anything.
The Panamax ships boost arrivals figures for the Tourism Minister, but here are the revenue figures:
1998 visitor expenditure cruise = $64.9 million
Air = $266.4 million
2010 visitor expenditure cruise = $61.00 million
Air = $322.9 million
With almost double the # of cruise passengers in 2010 compared with 1998, Bermuda took in less money! Factor in inflation at 2-3% per year for 12 years and one can see that the cruise passengers are not contributing much to Bermuda. Factor in the wear and tear on facilities used by them, we probably come out at a net loss overall!
….and yet Bermuda complains when the Cruise lines cut back or cancel their visits to the Island huh? Go figure….
with air arrivals contributing more than 10 times a day than cruise arrivals does it not make sense to find another way to bring 25,000 more people in by air each year…..easier said than done I’m sure but by most measures cruise visits are not worth much to the island in real money….
Where is the money to do this job? The country is broke a s a joke. The fact that we are even hanging on to this idea is beyond ridiculous. Who has this job already been promised to? How long have they had the contract? Time to dig up the dirt on this questionable project. Government rust levels are at an all time low worldwide. And we are allowing these politricians to destroy our countries and our livelihood. Look at the mess the world is in due our horrible corrupt politicians that are being paid BY THE TAXPAYER. We are giving our hard earned money and getting nothing in return but more debt and higher taxes. What can we do? We must do something to knock these people off there high horses. Time for a reality check. A boycott of some sort? Any suggestions?
trust levels
If Bermuda even had the $$$$$$$ to widen the channels (which they don’t but please stay with me). If we had the $70mill (which really means $140mill after over runs and crooked politician kick backs) then we should build a frickin hotel with it and fill it with REAL tourists.
Tell the cruise ship to go faking somewhere else!!!!!!
Can’t believe we are even talking about such a stupid and brainless idea. Only in Bermuda could there be such idiots in charge that such assinine ideas actually get talked about. Use the money to expand St Brendans – and the put the politicians in it. An shrow avay de key!
exactly……get the hotel built in St Georges and provide incentives for insurance business and others to set up shop in St Georges and it will come alive again with shops and restaurants..etc…
Government Facts and Figures
1998 Cruise Visitors 188,300
Air Arrivals 368,800
2010 Cruise Arrivals 347,900
Air Arrivals 232,300
1998 # of beds = 7,472
2010 # of beds = 5,722
1998 visitor expenditure cruise = $64.9 million
Air = $266.4 million
2010 visitor expenditure cruise = $61.00 million
Air = $322.9 million
Totally agree with you “Listen to what the man says”!
RobbieM – Teenyweeny correction
1998 visitor expenditure cruise = $64.9 million. NO. BDoT reported $42.5 million
Air = $266.4 million. NO. BDoT reported $438.0m
2010 visitor expenditure cruise = $61.00 million
Air = $322.9 million
So the disparity is even greater The average spend per Cruise Visitor in 1998 was $225. In 2010 it had fallen to $175 with the dollar buying less in 2010 than it would have bought in 1998.
In 2010, one airliner with 315 Air Arrivals provided as much spending as one mega-cruiseship with 2,500 passengers. (315 x $1,390 = $437,580 – vs – 2,500 x $175 = $437,500)
We need to up the number of hotel room and concentrate on air travel. We need to work with the airlines and bring down the price of a ticket to get here. Hotels & the BUI need to work on bringing down the price of the rooms.
Cruise ship passengers don’t spend on land. their food in port is included in the cruise cost. The trinkets they buy, are from the shops on board.
Think Air travel
Just so you know 1 minute, ANY REAL cruise passenger to Bermuda will tell you we rent scooters and do the island for the 3 days we are there. We may eat breakfast onboard the ship BUT when we are out and about the Island during the day, we stop at pubs, eat at restaurants for lunch AND dinner THEN return to the ship for bed. We don’t speed back to the ship for meals. The so called trinkets we buy are NOT only onboard. REAL cruisers WANT the items of the Island and are willing to pay for them. So go ahead, think Air Travel. The numbers stated above are SO bloated because what air tourists pay for their flights and the prices they pay on the Island make them that way. When you see who can and CAN’T afford to stay on the Island, and the numbers start falling off because of the Island hotel prices and the like, and there are NO cruise passengers anymore, “THINK AIR TRAVEL”!!!
1 Minute you are so correct. All the time money and effort we put in to getting people who don’t stay here, and don’t spend money is ridiculous – a total embarrassment.
Listen up OBA/ UBP peeps.
You can’t have it both ways. Do you want the tourist here or not. For the tourists who prefer to travel via ship, it is quite obvious that these ships WILL NOT and CON NOT berth in the City of Hamilton and St. George’s. While you continue to try and poke fun at the Govn’t for not being able to handle these ships, let’s actually look at it.
Down the islands to our South, where ships similar in size cruise and anchor at sea, I don’t remember the Govn’t of ANY of these countries actually tendering in the passengers. It was PRIVATE boats contracted by the ship and or the emergency boats that are on the ships. These boats will run 24/7 for the passengers who ventured off the boat whilst in port.
For the few ships that did dock at a port, most where to their own island or at a port that the cruise ship had a stake in.
So maybe Bermuda should just sell out like the islands to the South and allow the cruise ships to do whatever the hell they want.
Would that make you happy, Mr OBA/ UBP/ 40 thief
This is the most possitive comment all day keep thinking out of the box. With all the alternitives you have presented here it’s no wonder that you dedicate your time to “shooting the messengers” trying to paint them as the “evil opposition” cause they don’t agree with your peeps. Funny that where have we heard that before………………
LOL
Doing less and getting paid more since……………….
Hmm…Interesting remark…At one time I would have agreed with you when I cruised there in the 1990′s. But NOW, with the crime rate that has happened on your ONCE beautiful Island, a cruise to Bermuda has become no better than a cruise to Mexico!! So sad. I used to feel so welcomed on Bermuda. Not any more.
@ My Two Cents and Listen to what the Man Said: I am in agreement. One has to wonder who was given the contract to do this job and when. And why are we NOT building a hotel?? How many have been promised in the last 6 or so years? I don’t know but I do know how many have been completed. NONE.
BEST: Please, please keep up the good work, watch-dogging our fragile ecosystem!
Pastor Syl, I totally agree with you.
@ Its me says, Bermuda is not “down the Islands to our South”, so you cannot compare apples with oranges. The cruise lines bought those places! What’s up with “Listen up OBA/UBP peeps”? Sounds like you have an issue other than the one in the article?
Well done BEST…you do Bermuda proud with your reasoned approach to the larger issues caused by the cruise ship industry and their huge impact on our coral reef platform. True long term value is in protecting our marine environment from the damage of this industry.NO is the correct response to widening our channels for the larger cruise ships^^
@ RobbieM
Maybe it should have read. ” For the islands to our South “. That’s the point i was trying to make, the cruise lines did buy those islands, which is one of the MAIN reasons carnival is pulling out of Bermuda, because they can’t buy Bermuda.
Now ain’t that some SH!T.
When Carnival was first approached about cruising to Bermuda, they wanted to set up shop in Dockyard exclusively for their passengers, similar to what is seen at other destinations to our South ( BETTER ).
The OBA/UBP peep reference, is for those individuals who are apart of the complainers, but NEVER want to do or offer any solutions.
The Bermuda problem will not ever change.
BEST and the ppl in it are idiots.
We will never get anything done with these idiots complaining about everything.
BEST are a bunch of ppl who dont care about tourism. Effen retired people and wives of expats who aint got S…t to do.
The rest of us need JOBS
when the corals die and the shoreline starts washing away, then you will need housing too, bird
@Wpplarestupid… please join us in BEST so you can see that we aren’t all Wppl… nor retired people… nor wives of expats who ‘ain’t got s..t to do’. We are Bermudians Wppl and Bppl and there is much to do to protect Bermuda’s very limited space for the future generations of ALLppl!!!