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Volume: 120 No.49, March 13, 2023
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ACTIVIST QUESTIONS IMPACT OF RCI DEAL
Darville says PI is back to being ‘hog’ island with profits put first By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net FOLLOWING the approval of Royal Caribbean International’s $110m beach club project on Paradise Island, a local activist has questioned the environmental impacts the development will have. Last week, the Davis administration revealed the approval of RCI’s Paradise Beach Club, despite previous objections to the
project. In a statement addressed to the prime minister, Cabinet ministers, and “aspiring” politicians yesterday, Save the Bays chairman Joseph Darville reflected on the fond memories of his youth which he experienced on the western end of Paradise Island, as it had a large population of wild hogfish, hence the name “Hog Island”. However, Mr Darville SEE PAGE THREE
NCP TOP EXEC ‘ABSOLUTELY NOT WORRIED’ ABOUT RCI’S IMPACT By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net NASSAU Cruise Port’s top executive says he is “absolutely not worried” about Royal Caribbean’s $100m Paradise Island project sucking away passengers to the detriment of his facility and other Bahamian-owned businesses. Michael Maura told Tribune Business he is “very confident” there will be sufficient visitor volumes to support his $300m project, Bay Street and downtown
Nassau merchants, restaurants and straw vendors, and all cruise-reliant industries once the cruise giant’s Royal Beach Club opens in 2025. Noting that there will be days when Nassau Cruise Port receives as many as 30,000-plus passengers, he argued that not all will want “to go and sit on a beach” but, instead, seek out authentic Bahamian experiences involving this nation’s culture, heritage, cuisine and other unique aspects. FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS
GLORY FOR KNIGHTS THE CR Walker Knights brought home their seventh straight Government Secondary Schools Sports Association (GSSSA) track and field championships ahead of second-placed CV Bethel Stingrays. See SPORTS for the full story. Photo: Tenajh Sweeting
‘SLOW DOWN SPENDING’ GAS RETAILERS PLEA FOR TO HIT DEFICIT TARGET GOVT CHANGE OF HEART By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE BAHAMAS must produce “a faster slowdown on spending” to ensure it hits the revised $575.4m full-year deficit target and other key fiscal goals, a major international
financial services group is urging. Santander’s US capital markets unit, in a March 10 research note on The Bahamas to its institutional investor clients, warned that “spending needs to slow” in what was otherwise a relatively upbeat assessment on
FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS
By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net
THE vice president of the Bahamas Petroleum Dealers Association is pleading with government to reconsider its position on not granting retailers a margin increase, calling on Economic Affairs Minister
Michael Halkitis to have a “change of heart”. With repeated calls for the government to grant a margin increase, fuel retailers have threatened to take action soon to get the government’s attention, saying that they can no longer afford to operate on the SEE PAGE FIVE
CLEARED VASYLI ‘TO SPEND TIME WITH FAMILY’ INSIGHT By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net
AFTER being acquitted of the murder of her husband after a more than five-year long court battle, Donna Vasyli plans to spend time with her family before deciding what she wants to do with her life, according to one of her attorneys. Mrs Vasyli was acquitted
DONNA Vasyli Thursday night after a ninemember jury found her not guilty in a retrial for the stabbing death of her millionaire podiatrist husband,
Philip Vasyli, in 2015. The ruling marked an end to an eight-year-long court fight that initially resulted in her being convicted of murder in 2015. That conviction and 20-year sentence was quashed two years later and then a retrial was ordered by the Court of Appeal. When contacted by The Tribune on Friday, Owen
Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper
SEE PAGE FOUR
RCI DEAL ON PI APPROVED BUT CONCERNS REMAIN SEE PAGE EIGHT