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MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 2022
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Sir Sol’s equivalent a must for Lucayan By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE GRAND Lucayan must be acquired by a Sir Sol Kerzner equivalent to ensure long-term success, a hotelier said yesterday, arguing: “Business model is more important than cheque book size.” Magnus Alnebeck, the Pelican Bay’s general manager, told Tribune Business the Government must target a particular type of buyer if it wishes to revive Grand Bahama tourism - seeking out someone with the “vision and force” of the Atlantis developer or a Sandals, or a vertically integrated airlift, tour and hotel operator such as the Memories/Sunwing combination. Asserting that a “conventional hotel” deal, where a developer acquired the Grand Lucayan and partnered with a resort operator to brand it, was unlikely to succeed based on the property’s history, he said it was vital the Government
THE GRAND LUCAYAN focus on a buyer’s ability to make it a sustainable, long-term success rather than obsess over securing a $150m purchase price. Mr Alnebeck said a further “million dollar question” relates to Grand Bahama International Airport, which remains in a post-Dorian condition that Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister and minister of tourism, investments and aviation, recently said he was “embarrassed” by.
• Seek out Atlantistype developer or a Sandals, Gov’t told • ‘Business model more important than cheque book size’ • GB airport situation ‘million dollar question’ for any deal The airport remains a vital infrastructure asset in providing tourist access to the Grand Lucayan and the island’s wider tourism product. The Pelican Bay chief said any buyer for the hotel will “have a big say” in what happens to the airport, now owned and controlled by the Government, and will seek “guarantees”
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Bad weather cancels as many cruise calls as COVID’s Omicron By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net NASSAU Cruise Port’s top executive yesterday said it has lost more vessel calls to bad weather than the COVID Omicron variant with berth bookings “very solid” for the remainder of 2022. Michael Maura told Tribune Business that the Prince George Wharf operator had suffered “less than a handful of lost calls” as a result of the Ministry of Health and Wellness denying entry to cruise ships with a high number of onboard COVID cases, pegging the number at “less than three”.
MICHAEL MAURA This, he added, was equivalent to the number of cruise ship calls lost to bad weather since the New Year, and Nassau Cruise Port had offset those unable to enter due to COVID by
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Dive operator hopes cancellations don’t exceed 15% mark By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BIMINI dive operator is hoping COVID-related cancellations do not exceed the current 15 percent level with “40 percent of more” of annual business generated in the first three calendar months. Neal Watson, owner of Neal Watson’s Bimini Scuba Centre, told Tribune Business that Omicron-related booking cancellations by visitors were currently “noticeable but not devastating” to the business.
However, he voiced concern that the situation involving the Omicron variant will not get much worse, given that the three months to end-March typically account for the majority of the company’s revenues due to the popularity of shark diving and other excursions. “I feel like a lot of guests have called, maybe more than they ever did in the past, to say they’ve cancelled because they’ve tested positive for it,” Mr Watson told this newspaper.
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Dorian rebuild in question for 98% on tax break loss By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SOME 98 percent of business and home owners in Dorian-devastated Abaco say reinstating 10 percent VAT on construction services will “significantly influence” whether they rebuild or not. A rapid-fire survey conducted by the Abaco Chamber of Commerce, conducted once it became known last week that the tax break had not been extended beyond New Year’s Eve 2021, revealed
• ‘Nothing can stand in way of recovery’ • GB Chamber chief urges ‘more clarity’ more than three-quarters of respondents - almost 77 percent - were either “very concerned” or felt its loss would prevent them from
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