business@tribunemedia.net
TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2023
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Family Islands: Half beat 110% pre-COVID target • Hotels on five islands on track, to meet, or exceed 2019 • Offline inventory keeps Exuma and Eleuthera off-pace • Competitive vacation rental pressures impact industry
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net HALF the Family Islands boast hotels already beating forecasts that they will post room revenues equivalent to 110 percent of pre-COVID levels in 2023, it was revealed yesterday. Kerry Fountain, the Bahamas Out Island Promotion Board’s (BOIPB) executive director, told
Tribune Business that resorts were either exceeding or matching both their 2023 targets and 2019’s pre-pandemic performance on five of the ten islands where it boasts member properties. Based on figures for January and February 2023, he revealed that hotels on Abaco, Andros, Harbour Island, Acklins and San Salvador are ahead of predictions that they will achieve 100 percent of annual room
Opposition fears BPL deal negotiations ‘in the dark’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Opposition yesterday accused the Government of negotiating major multi-million dollar contracts “in the dark” as it emerged multiple parties have approached it with proposals for Bahamas Power & Light (BPL). Duane Sands, the Free National Movement (FNM) chairman, asked “on what basis” has the Davis administration chosen to negotiate with a joint venture involving BISX-listed FOCOL Holdings and Shell over a potential public-private partnership (PPP) involving the supply of
• Chair queries ‘basis’ for FOCOL/Shell talks • Multiple parties have proposals before Gov’t utility-scale solar power and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel to BPL. Speaking after it was reported that Bahamas Utilities Holdings, a FOCOL subsidiary, was reported to be “in the infancy stages” of negotiations with the Government, he told Tribune Business: “I’d like to know exactly how it is that a particular private
provider winds up being the preferred partner for a national corporation. “Perhaps there’s more to this story than they’re telling us, but in the absence of disclosure it becomes very important to understand on what basis does a single provider or a single private entity become the partner of the Government? We’d like to know.”
SHORTAGES of employee housing and certified fly fishing guides, and high ground transportation costs, were yesterday cited as some of the major “headwinds” impeding Family Island stopover tourism growth. Kerry Fountain, the Bahamas Out Island Promotion Board’s (BOIPB) executive director, told Tribune Business
that while same-day airlift connectivity from and to Nassau remains “the lowest hanging fruit” there are multiple other common challenges that must be addressed for these destinations to fully thrive. “What we’re also noticing for islands like Abaco, and we’re definitely seeing due to the popularity of second home rentals, is a shortage of staff housing,” he explained. “The problem that then creates, if you cannot find the staff because you don’t have
any affordable housing - and it’s not just Abaco, but Abaco comes to mind because of Dorian’s housing shortage - is that it creates service issues. “That’s not in terms of rudeness, but in terms of slowness. You have too many visitors with too few staff members. That’s going to create slow service complaints, which is already among our top six complaints for all the Family Islands.” And that is not the only area where
CHESTER COOPER
THE BAHAMAS is seeking to double Texas’ share of its tourism customer base to 10 percent, the deputy prime minister has revealed, while revealing that the Houston Rockets basketball team will likely hold their training camp in Nassau. Chester Cooper, also minister of tourism, investments and
aviation, in a videotaped interview following his ministry’s promotional tour to Austin, Dallas and Houston voiced confidence that the growth in visitor numbers from the so-called ‘Lone Star’ state will outpace the forecast 20 percent increase in overall arrivals for 2023. Detailing his team’s meeting with American Airlines, which is responsible for about 30 percent of The Bahamas international airlift capacity, he
KERRY FOUNTAIN the hood” revealed this was due to room inventory at one major property on either island being taken offline. The Promotion Board chief, though, warned that “everybody has to work in sync” if 2023’s ambitions are to be realised, and said hotels must find ways to
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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
DR DUANE SANDS Dr Sands said he was casting “no aspersions” on FOCOL, but said the nature of the revelation and seeming lack of process raised questions. Sir Franklyn Wilson, chairman of FOCOL Holdings, which operates the Shell brand, declined to comment when contacted by Tribune Business. “I’m just not in a position to comment on that,” he said. “I just cannot really go into that. I don’t want to say anything about it. I cannot.”
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some Family Islands are running short. “One of the things brought to my attention by a third-party foreign fishing tour operator is that the demand for fly fishing in The Bahamas has grown astronomically,” Mr Fountain added. “The problem is we don’t have enough certified fly fishing guides. “I know the Ministry of Tourism and BAMSI (the Bahamas Agricultural and Marine Science
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Bahamas aiming to double Texas visitor share to 10% By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
nights sold, and 110 percent of room revenues, generated immediately before COVID hit. Should those goals be realised, it would return the industry to a position matching - or exceeding - 2019 levels. Voicing optimism that this outcome will be realised, Mr Fountain said his confidence was based on increased airlift seat capacity for 2023, the removal of COVID-related travel restrictions that were still present in early 2022, and the return of group business via the meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) segment. While initially disappointed that two major Family Island markets, Eleuthera and Exuma, appeared to have underperformed during the winter tourism season’s start, he added that “lifting
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Europe’s ‘retreat’ outpaces Latin growth for Bahamas
Transport costs, shortages create tourism ‘headwinds’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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said: “This was a great opportunity for us to touch base with them and talk about their business; how well they are doing in terms of the load factors. “We were assured that all of their flights, all of their routes, are doing exceptionally well. In one particular case, we were falling slightly below the 80 percent mark. We’ve agreed to work with them on some marketing
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THE BAHAMIAN international banking sector is still contracting because the “retreat” of European assets is “outpacing” new growth from Latin America, the Central Bank’s governor has affirmed. John Rolle, in written replies to Tribune Business questions, acknowledged that the financial services industry has yet to regain momentum following two decades of scrutiny and regulatory pressures imposed by major world powers and fora such as the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) that act on their behalf. “In the international sector, there has been continued reduction in the size of the aggregate balance sheet for multiple reasons but, chiefly, the reduction in business from Europe,” he said. “This retreat is still outpacing new areas of business growth from Latin America.
JOHN ROLLE “In responding to the industry’s needs, the Central Bank has worked with industry and government to help introduce new regulated products such as private trust companies (PTCs) [and] executive entities, which allow financial institutions to use additional regulated vehicles to serve their client needs. The use of these vehicles has increased over the last decade. “The retreat of the European business summarises the sector’s response to heightened scrutiny that international financial centres like The Bahamas have faced over at least two straight decades around
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