Brent Ingraham says the downshift was immediate and unmistakable. In summer 2025, when the Bahamian government significantly increased fees for visiting boaters, not only did business at Abaco Beach Resort fall off, but cruisers became quite vocal about their frustration.
“We saw a dip in slip reservations immediately,” says Ingraham, the resort’s director of sales and marketing. “Our regular, frequent customers to the resort certainly wanted answers about how we were addressing the situation with the powers that be.”
They were far from alone. Local reports cited a decrease of 40 percent in boat traffic. The Association of Bahamas Marinas canceled the 2026 Bahamas Charter Yacht Show altogether after precious few boats registered to attend. On social media, boaters shared their feelings without, well, any filters whatsoever.
At every US boat show he attended, Ingraham says—from Annapolis, Maryland, down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida—attendees asked him when the Bahamian government would reverse course. “It went on for eight or nine months. There was no escape,” he says. Lee Prosenjak, owner of Valentine’s Resort & Marina on Harbour Island, says challenges remained for the prime summer months even after the Bahamian government acquiesced this past spring and reduced the fees.
“If you’re already booked somewhere else, you’re going to wait and come next year,” Prosenjak says. “It’s a longer tail than just an immediate thing.”
The good news, Prosenjak says, is that from now through the end of the high season in August, the beaches are still beautiful, the waters are still warm, and there’s a lot more elbow room in even the most popular anchorages. “Nobody’s here. Come and get it,” he says. “You can have your pick of the dinner reservations. The beach is still the same, but with less people on it. In my mind, it’s a great time to come.”
Prosenjak says he expects the situation to remain the same throughout the remainder of this season, with more boaters returning next year. What he sees all around him, he says, feels like Harbour Island of a decade ago, a time when visiting cruisers could get into most of the restaurants without a reservation, and when it was easy to get a golf cart to tool around on shore.
“On a normal day, you’re going to run into 36 people on the entire 3-mile stretch of beach,” he says. “Now it’s only 20 people.”
Ingraham says there’s also good news for boaters who like to leave the bigger resorts and head out to the smaller beach bars and local shops—most of which hung on through the downturn in business. “The mom-and-pop stores, the liquor stores, the gift stores, all along that revenue stream, they were all impacted because the bodies were not there,” he says. “Kudos to them, they were able to tighten their belts and sustain their operations to stay in business. They’re ready to welcome boaters to the islands.”
Prosenjak says early July is a fantastic time for boaters to visit, not only with July Fourth being a big holiday getaway time, but also because Bahamian Independence Day comes right after it on July 10. “We do fireworks and junkanoo, which is a cultural celebration from the Bahamas,” he says. “We’ll have some Bahamian specials in the restaurants, too.”
And beyond that, he adds, the off-season beckons with great deals for boaters who are looking for a surf-and-turf getaway. Valentine’s Resort & Marina offers specials at the hotel: “You can come and rent a one-bedroom for a month in the off-season for $5,000,” he says. “A two-bedroom is $7,500, and you can fit eight people in that.”
Ingraham says visiting cruisers who have lingering concerns can put them aside. He says boaters should feel confident that they can book now without fear that the Bahamian government will pull a switcheroo and raise the fees again, at least not anytime in the near future, and certainly not without serious discussion.
“I firmly believe with all the advocacy that went into it, we’ve come to a happy medium that we can all live with,” Ingraham says. “The plan is that before any such decisions are made of this nature, more conversations will happen with stakeholders.”
And boaters with plans to visit Abaco Beach Resort for builder and dealer rendezvous, he says, are still choosing the Bahamas, as previously existing group reservations are now growing with additional bookings. Boaters who were holding out, waiting to see what happened with the fees, are jumping in to join their cruising friends now that the fees have been reduced. “We just had Horizon Yachts, the motoryachts. This was their third time back to the resort for an owner rendezvous,” he says. “We have Solas boats coming, Boston Whaler with a major owner rendezvous, MarineMax Clearwater and Pompano is coming back, they are all booked. Denison Yachts are coming.”
Like Prosenjak, Ingraham stresses that while the cruising fees were changing back and forth, nothing was changing about the beauty of the Bahamian islands themselves. The sand on the beaches is still white and welcoming for anyone who wants to dig in their bare toes. The waters are still that color of turquoise that seems impossibly gorgeous, no matter how many times you’ve seen it. The fish are still biting, the dolphins are still playing in boaters’ wakes, and the lobsters and conch are still aplenty when it’s time to fire up the aft-deck barbecue.
“We are open for business,” Ingraham says. “We are better than we were before. We are doing record occupancy at the marina and at the resort, and we welcome persons to come and enjoy the deep-sea fishing, island-hopping, come and relax at the resort. We welcome them with open arms.”
