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MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2024
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boosts Resort proprietor targets 60 Moody’s Gov’t with $44m jobs in two-hotel expansion deficit miss forecast By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A BAHAMIAN resort entrepreneur is aiming to double his total workforce by 60 jobs through the launch of two new boutique properties by year-end 2026. Ben Simmons, proprietor of the Ocean View and The Other Side properties on Harbour Island and mainland Eleuthera, respectively, told Tribune Business he aims to open his third hotel, The Farm, by November 2024 if “all goes to plan” as construction work moves to completion. Once this project is finished, the construction workforce will “roll” into The Current, his fourth niche property that will be developed on a recentlyacquired 5.5 acre site with 1,000 feet of beachfront at the location that bears the same name.
• Creating four-strong Little Island Hotels brand • Bahamian entrepreneur eyes Farm in fall ‘24 • With The Current property to follow in 2026
LITTLEISLANDHOTELSTHEFARM Mr Simmons told this newspaper that the two new resorts, which will double his hotel portfolio, will enable him to place all four properties into
the newly-created Little Island Hotels brand that he is creating. And, with his existing properties employing workforces up to 30-strong, he added that
The Farm and The Current will likely take total payroll to 120 when fully open by each creating a similar number of jobs. “We’re becoming Little Island Hotels,” the Bahamian resort proprietor explained, adding that the “last structure” at The Farm will likely be completed within the next three weeks. Located on mainland North Eleuthera, near The Other Side, he said the third property will be centred around an existing farm and cater to the agri-tourism niche. Arguing that such a market, with its emphasis on sustainable practices and healthy eating and living, is “not really catered to in The Bahamas”, Mr Simmons said The Farm will also likely be targeted at “half” the price point charged to guests at the Ocean View, his Harbour Island-based property. However, visitors
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DPM: Eleuthera airport woe ‘completely embarrassing’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE deputy prime minister has admitted that North Eleuthera airport’s present woes are “completely embarrassing” even though the island posted a monthly visitor record for February 2024. Chester Cooper, addressing the Harbour Island Business Outlook conference, pledged that a new terminal building is “going to be well out of the ground by the end of this year” as he acknowledged the area’s “long suffering” due to inadequate airport facilities
CHESTER COOPER that have failed to keep pace with tourism and the wider economy’s growth. Besides the new terminal, which is scheduled to be completed towards the
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Closure to take Coral Sands to ‘next level’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A MAJOR Briland resort is set to close for five months from summer 2024 as its new owners bid to “take it to the next level” following 5-7 percent growth earlier this year. Chorten Wangyel, Coral Sands’ managing director, told a tourism panel discussion at the Harbour Island Business Outlook conference that while the resort was “a little bit far behind” projections for 2024 todate it was still enjoying “steady growth” ahead of its planned end-June closure for renovations. Revealing that the property is targeting a
December 1 re-opening, he added that Coral Sands plans to retain its existing workforce by involving them in construction activities and preparing for the resumption of operations after a five-month hiatus. “Just to give you a perspective, I’ve just taken over Coral Sands [with] the new ownership,” Mr Wangyel explained. “It’s been about four months. Business has been great for this year. There’s steady growth of about 5-7 percent; not as forecasted, as budgeted. “We are a little bit far behind, probably the COVID gap, the effect of COVID. 2022 and 2023
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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net MOODY’S has given the Government’s fiscal consolidation campaign a major boost by predicting that this year’s fiscal deficit will only narrowly overshoot its target by $44m. The credit rating agency, in its latest update on The Bahamas released on Friday, forecast that improved revenues and “spending restraint” will contain the deficit for the 2023-2024 fiscal year to a sum equivalent to just 1.2 percent of economic output of gross domestic product (GDP). If Moody’s projection turns out to be accurate, the GFS deficit will be only slightly higher than the $131m, or 0.9 percent of GDP, that the Davis administration targeted when unveiling its Budget last May. The rating agency’s latest 1.2 percent deficit forecast, based on that Budget, is equal to $174.67m or a near-$44m
overshoot if it holds and comes true. And Moody’s also shrugged off the fact that the Government’s fiscal deficit, which measures by how much its spending exceeds revenue and further grows the $11.5bn national debt, was almost double the full-year target at $258.7m half-way through the 20232024 Budget year. Despite the excessive ‘red ink’, it asserts that there are “signs of fiscal consolidation”. “According to data as of the first six months of the fiscal [year 2023-]2024, The Bahamas recorded a fiscal deficit equal to $258.7m or 1.9 percent of its GDP,” Moody’s said in its credit update. “Even though the deficit exceeded the target for the first six months of the fiscal year, there were signs of fiscal consolidation. “We expect improvement in revenue collection and continued restraint on spending will allow the Government to come close to the annual target of 0.9 percent of GDP. We
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