TABLE OF CONTENTS The islands of the Bahamas are close to the Caribbean but are not part of this region (Mancini, 2000). However, the Bahamas' close proximity to both the South Florida Coast and the eastern Caribbean makes them a natural itinerary option for cruise planners, which means the islands are a frequent stop in Caribbean cruises. The combined Bahamas and eastern Caribbean area is relatively accessible from US ports such as Miami, Port Everglades, and Port Canaveral, as well as from San Juan in Puerto Rico. However, because of the cumulative distance involved for this type of itinerary, the duration for some cruises is likely to be in excess of 7 days. There is a diversity of ports in the region, including the aforementioned cays and islands that are privately owned by cruise companies (Caribbean Tourism Organization, 2005). Several ports are described below, followed by a table that presents information about population, language, and currency. In all cases, for this and subsequent tables relating to destinations that appear in this chapter, populations of the port or island community are approximate.
Nassau and Freeport on New Providence Island are the primary ports of call in the Bahamas. In 2004, Nassau was the sixth most visited port in the world and Freeport was the sixteenth (Wild and Dearing, 2004a). The name Bahamas is a derivation of the Spanish "Baha Mar," or shallow sea, and there are approximately 700 islands in this popular self-styled "paradise archipelago" of sun, sea,...
