How The Bahamas is Managing Robust Tourism Growth

by Brian Major
Last updated: 9:00 AM ET, Mon March 30, 2026

To say The Bahamas is doing well tourism-wise would be a profound understatement. The destination’s tourism segment is flourishing, having set a record for the third year in a row in 2025, welcoming 12.5 million visitors by air and sea for 11.4 percent year-over-year growth that surpassed pre-pandemic travel by 72%.

This comes on the heels of The Bahamas turning Covid’s devastating impact on tourism into a multiyear plan to partner with tourism operators to bring in investment, create world-class experiences and turn tourism revenue into upgrades in local healthcare, education and infrastructure.

The track record of success has continued this year, as Disney Cruise Line has expanded its Bahamas fleet with new sailings to Nassau and their private destination, Lookout Cay. Meanwhile, Carnival’s Celebration Key created 2,500 permanent jobs and delivered a $3.2 billion economic impact; and MSC Cruises is investing $450 million in Grand Bahama’s port infrastructure with retail and food spaces and entertainment, while spending an additional $50 million to build a beach club and refurbish the existing retail area.

Overseeing these developments is Chester Cooper, The Bahamas’ deputy prime minister and minister of tourism, investments and aviation. Travelpulse spoke recently with the deputy prime minister to discuss the government’s role in creating The Bahamas’ tourism success.

TravelPulse (TP): How would you characterize 2025 and how have you been able to post such remarkable growth figures?

Chester Cooper (CC): We have had a great year. We are building on the successes of the past. We’re building on a very strong brand and we have a great strategy. You should know that a lot of our growth has come from cruise tourism. We significantly expanded our infrastructure starting with the Nassau Cruise Port a few years ago with a $350 million investment. And last year we celebrated the opening of Carnival’s Celebration Cay. Grand Bahama will attract a million visitor stops there. So when you combine the strength of a brand with the investments in infrastructure and our strategies, this is the result.

TP: How does the government work to execute its strategy?

CC: We continue to maintain several offices around the world that execute our strategy. And we travel to more than 35 cities around the world [including] the U.S. and Canada, telling the story of brand Bahamas and all that we have to offer. We’re launching a campaign to emphasize that we are more than just one island, we are a lifetime of them. We’re expanding our offering to 16 island destinations. Many people simply knew Nassau /Paradise Island.

Bahamas tourism minister Chester Cooper.

TP: What can you tell us about Celebration Cay?

CC: It’s a $700 million project, direct investment by Carnival Corp. and it fulfills their desire to be able to do multi-destination travel in the Bahamas. They can accommodate two mega cruise ships, they’re expanding to accommodate four megs ships and we anticipate that by 2028, they’re going to attract four million guests per year. It’s part of an overall strategy to advance multi-destination travel in the Bahamas. They are ideally positioned close to Florida, and with the escalating cost of fuel, there’s an advantage to our proximity to Florida.

They love the fact that Grand Bahama itself has so much to offer. There are a lot of sustainable tourism changes. Freeport itself offers amazing experiences. The West End of Grand Bahama offers the Family Islands experiences on the water, around the seas. Grand Bahama has a great story of adventure. This was a great opportunity for Carnival. We are leveraging this for significantly greater cruise numbers.

TP: How will the new Freeport Harbour Port operate?

CC: It’s not going to be an MSC exclusive port; it will be an open port. MSC is building a beach experience center, bringing new retail, restaurants and new opportunities to expand Grand Bahama Island. The Freeport Harbour leads directly into the city center; Celebration Cay is on the eastern end of Grand Bahama island. With this development and Celebration Cay we anticipate Grand Bahama will be one of the leading cruise destinations in the Caribbean.

TP: How is the Disney private island Lookout Cay performing?

CC: Lookout Cay is a recent development that opened two years ago. It’s doing extremely well. It’s an opportunity to see the ocean, as well as sail onto Nassau and Grand Bahama.

TP: How does the government view the cruise industry overall?

CC: You will find the cruise industry is growing robustly across the country. It’s contributed significantly to our economic growth. We have growing government revenues, opportunities for empowerment of our people, business opportunities, and of course we get to show off our offerings. So we are diversifying our offering. We are more than just Nassau Paradise Island and Nassau Cruise Port and we want the world to see.

TP: How did The Bahamas overcome the Covid crisis?

CC: We used Covid as a teachable moment; an opportunity to re-calibrate our offering. And first out of the gate was to manage the crisis as best we could. We re-opened our economy and went on a campaign to emphasize that we were open for business. This was well received, as a result, we have attracted more than $15 billion in new investments over the past year. A lot of it is in the tourism sector, but some is in education, some in healthcare, a lot of it in infrastructure, including the re-vampings of airports across our island; we’re investing heavily in new roads and bridges. We are building for the future.

TP: How will The Bahamas manage its tourism growth?

CC: We’re seeing the numbers continue to grow exponentially, and we want to ensure that we can consistently provide the world-class service we need to continue to expand all of the opportunities on business that extends beyond cruise. We have a vibrant stopover business, we want to grow that business as well and therefore we’re building up our room inventory. The biggest brands in the world are coming to the Bahamas. We have Rosewood, we have Bvlgari, Six Senses and Park Hyatt, all of them and more are in the pipeline as new developments. So what we are seeing is a massive injection into our tourism business that we know will pay dividends. Tourism is the driver of our economy. I call it the rising tide of our country.

TP: What role does environmental sustainability play in The Bahamas’ tourism development?

CC: We understand that our guests come to The Bahamas because we have the environment and the infrastructure to accommodate them. They understand that a part of our brand is that we will accommodate paradise, so that you understand our commitment to keep it paradise. We manage to ensure that there’s no overtourism for example. That’s why we create more infrastructure all around the islands.

We have opportunities to expand and grow in our multiple islands and we’re promoting 16 of them. We created new experiences for our guests like Coral Leaders that’s growing coral. That’s not only an experience for our guests, but it’s also contributing to the natural environment and improving the underwater marine life and resources. We have MSC who is doing a conservation center at Ocean Cay that’s focused similarly.

When it comes to sustainable tourism, we have been leading the way for many decades. We used to call it eco-tourism. Now that others are catching up, they call it sustainable tourism. It’s our way of life quite frankly. We must preserve our economy, we must preserve our environment for future generations and we must protect it to ensure we have a sustainable economy for the future. Generally we’re doing all of the things to protect what we believe is a gift that God has given us.

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