Top left and right: Carnival Cruise Line’s Celebration Key resort under construction; middle: Minnie Mouse at Disney’s Castaway Cay resort; bottom left: a CGI render of the Royal Caribbean’s planned resort in Nassau; and right: a press call at the start of construction. Composite: Alamy/Royal Caribbean
But if only for their scale alone, Celebration Key and two other expansive developments just like it, either recently opened or being built elsewhere in the 700-island archipelago, represent a worrisome new threat, campaigners say. The “seductions” he sees are the cruise lines touting the supposed economic advantages to the Bahamas of being allowed to buy and develop land, promoting what he claims are questionable environmental credentials, and pledging community investments for locals in terms of jobs and grants for small businesses and education., but a stroll around once-bustling Freeport, the largest town, cruise port and commercial hub of Grand Bahama, provides plenty of evidence of the island’s decline.
The websites of all three projects are also heavy with words and phrases such as “environmental commitment”, “sustainability” and “responsibility”., prepared for Carnival in 2019, stating that the “development, construction and ongoing operation of Celebration Key” would create thousands of Bahamian jobs and generate a $1.5bn boost for the Bahama’s GDP.57% year-on-year to $13.9bn; and that of Disney’s Magical Cruise Company, while smaller at $2.
But campaigners say the projects are also significantly detrimental to wildlife, in water and on land, as well as precious coral reefs already imperilled by rising sea temperatures.Gail Woon wants to help educate the next generation about the environmental challenges faced by the region and the world. Photograph: Richard Luscombe/the Guardian
“We had coral reef biologists testify that if you put a golf course on the beach and fertilise the grass, the run-off will go into the ocean and kill the coral because they can’t take large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus,” she says.