There's no slowdown in spending among the wealthy on this Bahamian island

Word that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce had been spotted mooring on this tiny (5 square mile) spot of the island for vacation was met with awe by tourists who had gathered to watch the bar's stunning sunset, and with dismay by locals, concerned that their little spot of paradise Theirs will turn into the next St. Barts.

“I heard she lives right down the street,” a woman sitting alone at the bar told us. And she was merrily playing perfectly chilled Prosecco in her champagne flutes.

Local residents seemed unimpressed.

“It's the 2% who come, the super-rich,” one shopkeeper told us, noting that business was brisk among the wealthy Americans, Canadians and Britons who form the backbone of the economy here.

Maybe too fast

“We have 20 billionaires on this island alone,” she said, looking at me suspiciously. “The traffic is becoming unbearable.”

I straightened up and tried to look like a 100, but I wasn't sure what they looked like.

passage? What traffic? She looked out her shop window. Most people were getting around in golf carts. Harbor Island has a population of just 1,800, and its only town is Dunmore Town, making St. Barts (population 11,000) look like downtown Manhattan.

She explained that the same woman had moved to Eleuthera, a 10-minute water taxi ride away, where Hoi Pollo apparently rarely comes.

All of this begs the question: Why would anyone, let alone Taylor Swift and a group of billionaires, come to this little spot?

Why are there so many mega yachts located at Valentine Marina?

Harbor Island is hardly an island. It's an island located off an island, in this case Eleuthera, about 60 miles northeast of Nassau. You can't fly to it. You fly to Eleuthera, take a taxi to the pier a few miles away, and take a water taxi to Harbor Island

This inaccessibility is clearly a major selling point for the small group of people who can fit in on the island and can afford to pay the exorbitant (St. Barts-style) prices.

The operative word is “small.” The largest hotel has 41 rooms. A dozen or so other hotels have less than that. In total, there can be no more than 250 hotel rooms on the entire island. You are unlikely to see a large global chain setting up shop here. I doubt the infrastructure can support a large hotel. Not surprisingly, there is a brisk business renting out the few homes on the island.

However, walk around the city for a few days, and you can see why a small group of travelers keep coming back and seem uninterested in making it bigger:

Pink Sands Beach: This is one of the greatest beaches in the Caribbean, and indeed in the world. Â It's really pink, thanks to the decaying shells of microscopic sea creatures. Â It stays white, hundreds of feet from shore, no seaweed, no rocks, nothing, just blue water. It's flat, and the sand is compact so you can walk without sinking into it. It is so small that people ride horses up and down the three-mile stretch. Restaurants: How can an island with a few hundred visitors support so many great restaurants? There are local places like Queen Conch or Ma Ruby, which serve great Caribbean food and are famous for their “Cheeseburger in Paradise” (served on a brioche-shaped bun, supposedly a tribute to Jimmy Buffett). There's great Italian food at Aquapazza, classic Caribbean meat and fish dishes at Latitude 25 at the Coral Sands Hotel, the upscale Dunmore Hotel, or at Malcolm 51 at the all-luxury Pink Sands rustic resort, Rock House, The Landing, or on Valentine's Day. ÂAnd you still can't get a reservation on many nights. Homes: You'd think an island with so many wealthy visitors and residents would be full of giant McMansions and multi-acre compounds.  They are definitely here. “Millionaires live on the North Side, billionaires live on the South Side, and everyone else lives in the middle,” the captain of the boat we chartered for a day cruise joked. Â Â People like Bill Gates, Ron Perlman, Mickey Drexler, Barry Diller, Diane von Furstenberg and Wayne Huizinga are said to have homes here. But Dunmore is full of modest one- and two-storey houses that glow with colour: blue, yellow, red, a veritable explosion of pastels, along with purple morning glories all around. Churches: Walk around on a Sunday and you can hear the singing. It is a religious state: 90% belong to some religious denomination, although largely Protestant (Baptists and Anglicans), with Roman Catholics and a few Jehovah's Witnesses, Greek Orthodox, and others. Â We attended Lighthouse of God Church to hear Pastor Samuel Higgs, guitarist Rocky Sanders and a heavenly group of singers rock the house with old school gospel music. Â Mick Jagger and Lenny Kravitz also stopped by. Â Higgs and Sanders played clubs in Europe before returning to the island. The People: The people of the Bahamas are known for their warmth and friendliness, and they come out in abundance on a small island like this. Just say “Good morning” to anyone, and they will stop and say, “Good morning! How are you?” Â Â They'll smile, and they mean it.

 While locals may complain about the traffic and the rich, don't expect the Bahamian government to close the door.  Tourism accounts for 50% of the country's GDP, and employs nearly 70% of the workforce. Thanks to this cash injection, per capita income has become the third largest in the Western Hemisphere (after the United States and Canada).

Luxury travel may be booming, but travel to the Caribbean overall remains strong. Arrivals rose 14.3% last year, according to a recent report from the Caribbean Tourism Organization published by Caribbean Journal. a

And while the locals may complain, any island or small town will do its best to have the kind of intense loyalty that such places seem to engender.

The woman at Valentine's Bar said she's been coming here for 20 years and spent her honeymoon here. She had flown to Eleuthera on a private plane with her husband (who owned car dealerships in the Midwest), their children, and their friends. They had chartered a boat to spend a few weeks in the Bahamas, and were going south to smaller islands.

Why was she sitting alone at the bar?

She said, smiling, that her family was looking for Taylor Swift.