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Cruise ships are making the government plenty plenty money and Fusion Superplex is finally getting it together.

Let's get into it.

Nassau Cruise Port CEO Mike Maura says cruise passenger head taxes are on track to bring in close to $200 million for the public treasury this year. Read that number twice. That's not tourism spending in general, that's just the tax collected per passenger walking off the ship.

What you mean bey?

Nassau welcomed 3.5 million passengers across more than 1,800 calls between January and June of this year alone. To put that in perspective, the busiest full year Nassau ever had before the port's redevelopment was 3.85 million passengers, over an entire 12 months. We're now just 350,000 shy of that record, and we got there in six months.

The port is forecasting about 6.7 million passengers for all of 2026. That's up from 6.1 million in 2025, and almost double what Nassau saw back in 2019, before the redevelopment reshaped downtown.

The money math

Back in 2019, the head tax sat at $18 per passenger. At today's volumes, that rate would have generated roughly $70 million for government coffers.

Since then, that $18 has climbed to a combined $30 once you add in the Tourism Sustainability Tax and the Tourism Environmental Levy. Run that $30 against the 6.1 million passengers Nassau saw in 2025, and you get $183 million flowing straight to the public treasury, just from head taxes. Apply that same rate to this year's projected volumes, and you land close to $200 million.

So in six years, cruise tax revenue alone has nearly tripled. That's before anyone talks about what passengers actually spend once they're on the ground.

And that's before spending… Industry surveys put average cruise passenger spending at around $100 per visitor. Multiply that by 2025's passenger count and you're looking at more than $600 million injected directly into the Bahamian economy last year, and that figure doesn't even include VAT collected on retail purchases and excursions.

Cruise tourism has become one of the most reliable revenue engines in the country, and it's growing faster than almost anyone expected when the port redevelopment was announced. For a government juggling budget pressures, a near-guaranteed $200 million line item matters. For everyday Bahamians, it's worth watching whether that revenue translates into visible improvements, better infrastructure, better services, or just gets absorbed into the general pot.

Time for some history trivia:

On this day (July 20th) in 1969, history was made with a single step. Who took it, and where was it taken?

Check the bottom of the newsletter for the answer.

If your summer plans got thrown off by broken arcade machines and a 4DX theater stuck in limbo, you're not imagining things. Fusion Superplex says it'll be back to full operation by the end of July, nearly five months after a ransomware attack knocked out everything from ticketing to payroll back in March.

If you don’t remember… here’s what happened. A cyberattack, tied to a group called Qilin, hit Fusion on March 2nd and took down critical systems across the board. Co-founder Tecoyo Bridgewater says about 80% of systems are now restored, with help from BTC's cybersecurity team, but some damage couldn't be undone. Servers running the arcade machines and digital signage were compromised beyond repair and had to be replaced entirely. New equipment goes in next week.

Five months is a long time for a family entertainment spot to run at partial capacity, especially through a summer packed with releases like Spider-Man, Toy Story, and Moana. Bridgewater admits summer revenues are still below expectations because key offerings, including the popular 4DX experience, weren't fully online. For a business that leans hard on families showing up for the big summer blockbusters, that's money left on the table during the most important season.

What’s the big deal?

If you've been wondering why online ticket sales were down or why the 4DX showings weren’t available, now you know. It also points to a bigger issue: a five-month recovery from a single cyberattack shows how exposed local businesses still are, and how long it can take to bounce back once it happens.

🎣 Cast your next fishing trip straight from your phone. Digital Sportsman just launched DS Guide, a booking marketplace with 250+ Bahamian and US outdoor experiences, letting travelers book bonefishing guides and lodges directly. A cut of every booking funds local fishery conservation.

💊 Pharmacists say they're still waiting on the smoke to clear. The Bahamas Pharmaceutical Association says the Cannabis Authority still has no building, no phone line, and no public contact months after promising a June rollout. Health officials assured them Bahamians will be first in line once it launches.

🗳️ The FNM's report card just got postponed. Party chairman Duane Sands says the post-election conclave, originally slated for this month, won't happen in July after all. It's "actively being planned," he says, with no new date attached.

✈️ Bahamasair's summer is filling up fast. The flag carrier says bookings hit 67% by the end of June, with West Palm Beach and Orlando leading demand. Expect that number to keep climbing as travelers lock in last-minute plans.

🍁 Our neighbors up north keep showing up. Tourism officials say Canadian visitor arrivals are hitting record highs, with Nassau leaning into culture-forward experiences like fish fries and People-to-People meetups to keep them coming back.

⚡ Your lights might run cleaner soon. New Providence Gas broke ground on an LNG import facility at Clifton Pier, with cleaner fuel expected to power FOCOL's turbines starting Q1 2027. BPL's own switch timeline is still up in the air.

🚕 Airport pickup drama isn't going anywhere. The Livery Drivers Union admits some of its members are posing as taxis at LPIA, and vice versa. Both unions are pointing fingers while the Road Traffic Department gets asked for tougher penalties.

⚽ Spain just won soccer's biggest trophy, and FIFA won even bigger. Spain edged Argentina 1-0 in extra time to take the World Cup, but FIFA is the real winner, projecting record revenue of $15 billion, crushing its own $11 billion forecast.

🏦 Wall Street just had its best quarter in recent memory. JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup posted a combined $49 billion in profits, fueled by AI-deal fees and trading volatility tied to the Iran conflict and SpaceX's IPO.

🦖 Someone just paid $50 million for a dead dinosaur. A 67-million-year-old T. rex skeleton nicknamed Gus sold for a record $50.1 million at Sotheby's, edging out a stegosaurus that fetched $44.6 million back in 2024.

🥬 Somebody's taco order came with a side of trouble. A multi-state Cyclospora outbreak (which causes explosive diarrhea… no lie) has been linked to shredded lettuce supplied to Taco Bell by Taylor Farms, prompting the chain to pull the lettuce in five states while the CDC investigates.

In its final days, The Reef tried everything to stay afloat. New menus. New management. Even a promise they got rid of all the rats (for real this time).

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— The Bay Street Brief Team