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MONDAY, MAY 4, 2020
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No cruise tourists for five months (at least) By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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ASSAU Cruise Port is projecting passenger numbers will plummet by 61.4 percent in 2020, with no new arrivals for at least five months, as it today launches its $130m bond financing. Michael Maura, Nassau Cruise Portâs chief executive, said the operator/ developer is forecasting that the cruise industry will return to Prince George Wharf after âsix months of nothingâ in the 2020 fourth quarter with much-reduced passenger numbers. Speaking to Tribune Business after the portâs capital raising was formally unveiled to potential investors and finance houses on Friday, Mr Maura said arrivals coming through The Bahamasâ biggest tourism gateway are projected to drop by 2.34m year-over-year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
⢠Nassau cruise port predicts 61% drop-off in 2020 ⢠With 635,000 visitor rebound in fourth quarter ⢠Still â30% belowâ 2019 levels in 2021 full-year
MICHAEL MAURA - falling from 3.81 in 2019 to 1.47m. That near-two-thirds decline includes the 835,000 passengers who arrived in Nassau between New Yearâs Day and the start of the economic lockdown on March 16, meaning that some 635,000 cruise arrivals are forecast to come during a final quarter that includes the Thanksgiving
Contractor chief wanted another week to re-open By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamian Contractors Associationâs (BCA) president yesterday said he had wanted the industryâs re-opening delayed another week, and said: âWeâre keeping health before wealth.â Michael Pratt told Tribune Business he had sought an extra week to allow time for contractors to be educated on the necessary COVID-19 health and safety measures they must implement, with the BCA set to launch an online two-hour occupational health and safety course this Thursday on the topic.
However, the prime minister yesterday confirmed that The Bahamas will today move to âPhase 1Bâ or stage two of the governmentâs economy re-opening strategy which involves the construction industry restarting on both New Providence and Grand Bahama. The sector had already re-opened on the Family Islands, and will now be able to work nationwide between the hours of 7am and 5pm between Monday and Friday. âConstruction will now be permitted on New Providence and Grand Bahama with industry protocols that
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Deltec confirms 15 redundancies By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A MAJOR Bahamian international bank yesterday confirmed it had terminated 15 staff as part of a restructuring focused on automation and financial technology (Fintech). Deltec International Group, in a statement responding to Tribune Business inquiries, said the lay-offs had impacted less than ten
percent of its workforce and that 150 persons remained with the western New Providence-based financial institution. Revealing that its technology team has more than quadrupled, increasing by 350 percent, Deltec said the lay-offs were triggered by its shift to a new business model that relies heavily on automation to drive increased efficiencies as well as the
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and Christmas holidays. Nassau Cruise Portâs projections, which were shared with this newspaper and investors, forecast a steady post-2020 recovery even though 2021 passenger numbers will likely still be almost 32 percent down on 2019 figures at 2.6m. Cruise arrivals are predicted to rebound to 3.7m in 2022, just below last yearâs numbers, before finally exceeding 2019âs benchmark when 3.88m are brought to the Bahamian capital. Passenger numbers are predicted to grow steadily thereafter at 4.8 percent per annum through 2030, and at 3.8 percent thereafter, with total arrivals hitting 7.48m in 2039. Mr Maura, describing Nassau Cruise Portâs projections as âconservativeâ, acknowledged that the
2020 passenger numbers represented âa material reductionâ as a result of COVID-19âs impact and the subsequent global cruise industry shutdown. âIn the first quarter we handled on average 76,000 passengers a week,â he told Tribune Business. âIn the fourth quarter weâre looking at handling approximately 48,000 passengers a week. Thatâs after six weeks of nothing.... âWe said weâre going to look at the fourth quarter. I have spoken to, and had the benefit of speaking with, every cruise line that comes to The Bahamas. They say The Bahamas is significant and strategic in their return to the water. âThey see themselves calling on The Bahamas
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âWorst ever mistakeâ for inflated reserves By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE $2bn foreign exchange reserves are less healthy than they appear because of the Minnis administrationâs âworst ever mistakeâ, a former Central Bank governor argued yesterday. James Smith, also a former finance minister, told Tribune Business that the nationâs foreign currency reserves had been artificially boosted by the $750m US dollar bond that the government placed in the international markets in November 2017. Pointing out that this represented âborrowedâ money rather than inflows âearnedâ from tourism and foreign exchange activity, Mr Smith said the current pressure imposed by the COVID-19 crisis showed why he had misgivings at the time about the bond issue. Reiterating that it had created a currency âmismatchâ by repaying Bahamian dollar debt using foreign currency, he explained that the borrowing had created a further âclaimâ on The Bahamas
JAMES SMITH foreign reserves through the extra US dollar interest and principal it will have to repay to investors. Backing the Central Bankâs decision to suspend approvals for dividend repatriations by the Canadian-owned banks to their international parents as a way to preserve the foreign currency reserves, Mr Smith said the move was a further sign of the deep âstressâ imposed on the Bahamian economy by the pandemic. âIf you drill beneath youâll find itâs not $2bn,â he argued of the reserves, âbecause in the first instance itâs generated by a balance of payments support loan. I think thatâs the biggest mistake they ever made. âYou donât mismatch your currencies. You donât
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