Royal Caribbean International is looking at the possibility
of building accommodations on Bahamian private island CocoCay to allow a limited
number of guests to stay for a night or longer.
Royal Caribbean president Michael Bayley said the concept
would be a small number of high-end cabanas for suite guests, who could come
and go on any of the 10 ships that are scheduled to visit CocoCay.
Bayley said that the $200 million revamp of CocoCay
currently underway includes lighting and infrastructure that will enable
late-night and overnight stays.
"We honestly have to gauge guest demand and
satisfaction on these things," Bayley said. "We're pretty sure late
nights will be a hit. We think overnights could be a hit and we're wondering if
a whole weekend could be a hit."
Bayley said in no uncertain terms that Royal Caribbean isn't
interested in getting into the hotel business.
"It would not be a volume component. It would maybe be
10 cabanas of suite-type quality which would be pretty high-priced, and then
you'd have the ability to hop on any one of our ships. But there's a lot of
revenue and logistical issues to work out with that idea," Bayley said.
"There has to be demand in relationship to the costs
and the pricing we'd charge for it. So, it would probably be a higher-priced
product.