business@tribunemedia.net
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2025
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BAHA MAR RESORT
Baha Mar: RevPAR down through all Q1 with rates sacrificed t *OWFTUJOH AOPSUI PG N JO SFTPSU t $BOBEJBO ACVNQ ZFU UP NBUFSJBMJTF t "UMBOUJT AOPU RVJUF IJU CVEHFU UBSHFUT By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHA Mar is sacrificing rates and yield to drive 2025 first quarter business volumes, its president revealed yesterday, with plans to “invest north of $38m” in upgrading and refreshing its product this year. Graeme Davis, the Cable Beach mega resort’s president, addressing the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) first quarter meeting, said revenue per available room (RevPAR), a key indicator of resort industry performance, was expected to decline year-over-year through the three months to end-March 2025 as it bids “to grow some volume”. And, while Baha Mar hopes to break ground on the Melia Nassau Beach hotel’s replacement “as early as possible in 2026”, both Mr Davis and Jackson Weech, general manager for operations at Atlantis, confirmed that The Bahamas’ two mega resorts remain “cautiously optimistic” as they pay close attention to the impact Donald Trump’s trade and
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Capo accuses Genting of ‘cooking the books’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net RESORTS World Bimini’s original developer has doubled down on claims that its Genting partner “cooked the books” in such a way as to “effectively wipe out” its $25m equity investment in the project. Gerardo Capo’s RAV Bahamas, in legal filings with the south Florida federal court on Tuesday, asserted that $878m in debt carried on the balance sheet of the resort’s holding company, BB Entertainment, had been “peculiarly structured” by the Malaysian conglomerate so that it would “only become payable” whenever the development is liquidated and wound-up. This, RAV Bahamas is alleging, would mean that upon Resorts World Bimini’s liquidation all available
t $MBJNT N 3FTPSUT 8PSME MPBOT AQFDVMJBSMZ TUSVDUVSFE t 4BZT (FOUJOH EJE UIJT UP ADPNQMFUFMZ XJQF PVU N FRVJUZ t &OE SFTVMU AUP TUFBM 3"7 #BIBNBT MBOE XJUIPVU QBZJOH GPS JU assets and funds would be upstreamed to pay Genting, its affiliates and other creditors first. Such an outcome, it is arguing, would ensure it never recovers the $25m worth of real estate it contributed to the parties’ joint venture for its 22 percent minority ownership interest in BB Entertainment. Besides wiping out the value of its investment, RAV Bahamas is also claiming that Genting - by “dumping” more than $600m of “illegitimate debt” incurred elsewhere in
its global empire on Resorts World Bimini - will effectively “steal RAV’s land without ever paying any value for it”. Tuesday’s legal filings are the latest salvo in the spectacular falling-out between RAV Bahamas, headed by Miami-based Mr Capo and his family, and the multi-billion dollar resorts and gaming conglomerate with whom they partnered in 2012 to develop the original Bimini Bay project into Resorts World Bimini.
Genting Americas and its affiliates have vehemently denied all of RAV Bahamas’ various claims and assertions. They, in turn, have accused their minority partner of trying “to extract an exorbitant payment” by mounting a $600m damages claim, while also seeking to “inflict severe reputational damage” on the publicly-listed resort, gaming and leisure group through a series of “baseless” allegations. RAV Bahamas, though, has this week launched a renewed offensive by claiming that both Bahamian and Florida law permits it to bring a “direct shareholder claim” as the only party set to suffer “harm” whereas Genting and BB Investment Holdings (BBIH), the vehicle which holds its 78 percent majority stake in Resorts World Bimini, will not be damaged at all.
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Bahamasair Exuma ‘hiccup’ drops Family Island growth By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AIRLINE ticket bookings for Family Island travel between February and July 2025 would be up 12 percent year-over-year if George Town and the Bahamasair “hiccup” are not included, it was revealed yesterday. Kerry Fountain, the Bahama Out Island Promotion Board’s executive director, told the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) first quarter meeting that the increase in
airline ticket bookings to the Family Islands would be six times’ higher in percentage terms if the 16 percent falloff in travel to Exuma was excluded. He attributed the Exuma drop-off to a “loss of seats” associated with Bahamasair, at least temporarily, discontinuing its George Town service from Fort Lauderdale because it simply does not have sufficient aircraft to operate the route. Bahamasair has been struggling with Pratt-Whitney, the aircraft manufacturer, returning repaired engines to it on a
timely basis, which has left up to two of its ATR aircraft grounded at the same time. The temporary closure of Sandals Emerald Bay, for its conversion into a Beaches resort, may also have motivated some airlines to reduce seat capacity into Exuma. Still, Mr Fountain said airline bookings for Family Island travel, as measured by the Forward Keys consultancy, were still up year-over-year by 2 percent for the Promotion Board’s member properties during the period February to July 2025.
KERRY FOUNTAIN “As far as looking ahead, February through July of this year, future bookings from
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PHILIP “Brave” Davis gives remarks to reporters at the RF Bahamas Economic Outlook yesterday. Photo:Chappell Whyms Jr/Staff
‘Uncertain’ times for world, warns PM By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the world is currently facing a period of “uncertainty” due to economic instability, geopolitical realignments, and shifting power dynamics. Speaking at RF Bahamas Economic Outlook yesterday, Mr Davis said although the global landscape has “particularly high stakes” for small island states it also presents an opportunity to define this nation’s place in the world. “In every era of history, the world has confronted moments of uncertainty, times when the established order appeared to fray, when the assumptions of one generation no longer
served the realities of the next. Today, we find ourselves at such a juncture,” said Mr Davis. “For small island states such as ours, the stakes of this new global reality are particularly high. We do not have the luxury of retreating behind vast industrial economies or self-sufficient markets. Our prosperity has always been intertwined with the global order—our financial sector, our tourism industry, and our trade partnerships. So, our task is not to lament uncertainty but to recognise the opportunity to define our own place in the world.” Mr Davis said many of our “economic pressures” are external and our prosperity depends on accessing international markets and
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