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THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025
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‘Ton of potential’: Out Island bookings near term ahead by 4% t "WFSBHF PDDVQBODJFT HJWF HSPXUI SPPN t A'MPBUJOH SFTPSUT DPOUSJCVUJOH UP TUPQPWFS FSPTJPO By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AVERAGE occupancy rates of 42-45 percent mean Family Island resorts have “a ton of potential for growth”, a senior tourism executive said yesterday, with shortterm airline bookings up 4 percent through August. KERRY FOUNTAIN Kerry Fountain, the Bahama Out Island Promotion Board’s executive director, told Tribune Business that despite the 11 percent year-over-year increases in both room revenues and room nights sold that member hotels enjoyed during the 2025 first quarter there remains much room for further expansion in Family Island tourism. Revealing that Acklins, Andros, Bimini, Long Island and San Salvador all enjoyed an uptick in room nights sold for the three months to end-March, he added that Abaco “showed a slight decline” while Eleuthera, Exuma and Cat Island were also down yearover-year. However, Abaco’s pricing power ensured that its room revenues increased compared to 2024, as did those for all the islands that enjoyed higher room nights sold. However, both Eleuthera and Exuma were “down double digits” on 2025 first quarter room revenues, while Cat Island was flat. And Mr Fountain reiterated to this newspaper that Promotion Board member resorts are adopting a “cautious” near-term outlook, particularly beyond end-July and mid-August, when US students return to school, due to the prevailing tariff-related uncertainty hitting business and consumer confidence. Still, despite the overall 4 percent decline in stopover visitors to The Bahamas for the 2025 first quarter, Mr Fountain revealed that short-term forward bookings for the Family Islands - as measured by the number of airline
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CIBC: First-half ‘casts doubt’ Gov’t to hit $70m deficit goal t #BOL XBSOT PO EFCU AFMFWBUFE SPMMPWFS SJTL A MAJOR Canadian bank says the Government’s six- t N POF ZFBS CPOET month fiscal outturn “casts JTTVFE JO mSTU IBMG some doubt” on whether the full-year $69.8m target will be met while also voicing con- t 'PSFDBTUT GVMM ZFBS cern over its “elevated roll over risk”. EFmDJU GVMM QU IJHIFS By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
CIBC, in its April 2025 Caribbean Market Overview, said the Davis administration’s ever-growing reliance on short-term bonds with maturities of one-year or less to meet its debt funding needs is increasing its exposure to one, or a number of, large investors potentially demanding that their principal be repaid rather than agreeing it be refinanced. The bank, which has a significant commercial and international financial services presence in The Bahamas, said the Government’s escalating reliance on short-term debt to cover
its deficit and funding needs was exposed during the six months to end-2024 because, while net bond debt grew by $91.5m, the gross value of one-year bonds issued during that same period hit $157.9m. And the CIBC report also confirmed previous Tribune Business reports that the Government drew down on $161.5m set aside to meet future foreign currency bond repayments to instead meet its immediate financing needs during the first-half of the current 2024-2025 fiscal year.
“Government financed its operations during the sixmonth period using sinking fund withdrawals of $161.5m and net new debt of $434.9m, pushing total direct debt to $11.75bn or 79.2 percent of GDP at December 2024,” CIBC said. “Domestic debt climbed $376.5m to $6.63bn, largely reflecting an upswing in Central Bank advances ($169m), and higher net issuance of Treasury Bills ($117.8m) and bonds ($91.5m). However, of the $91.5m increase in bond holdings, bonds with
KWASI THOMPSON a maturity of one year or less rose $157.9m, highlighting Government’s elevated roll-over risk associated with domestic debt. “External debt rose $58.4m to $5.12b as repayments on bilateral, multilateral and commercial debt partly offset new commercial borrowing.” CIBC acknowledged The Bahamas’ debt-for-nature refinancing in November
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Opposition encourages Auditor General $400m contracts probe By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Opposition’s leader yesterday voiced optimism that the Government’s financial watchdog will “look closely” at what he alleged is nearly $400m worth of public sector contracts awarded without competitive bidding. Michael Pintard told Tribune Business he was “hopeful” that Brenda Neeley, the acting
auditor general, will “dedicate resources and a team” to probe and audit some 621 contracts, valued at $396.79m, that were purportedly issues using the so-called direct award, or single source, procurement method between December 2023 and January 2025. And he asserted that Carl Oliver, the Government’s acting chief procurement officer, testified that some public officials have “just accepted not to comply” with
the Public Procurement Act and its accompanying regulations during an appearance before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday. Mr Pintard, who heads the Opposition-controlled spending watchdog, told this newspaper that numerous government entities - especially multiple state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and even the
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MICHAEL PINTARD
Long Island ‘tired of being tricked, fooled by white elephants’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net LONG Island residents are “tired of being tricked and fooled with white elephants”, the island’s MP asserted yesterday, as he challenged whether the $250m Calypso Cove cruise port will ever become reality. Adrian Gibson, addressing the House of Assembly, argued that no visible progress had occurred since the development’s “fancy ground breaking” and Heads of Agreement signing more than two-and-a-half years ago to further undermine Long Island hopes of
desperately-needed investment to drive an economic revival. Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister and also minister for tourism, investments and aviation, countered by seeking to reassure that the project targeted at Long Island’s southern tip - is moving forward and is currently at the “environmental studies” stage as part of the process requited to obtain a certificate of environmental clearance (CED) from the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP). And a Calypso Cove spokesman, contacted by Tribune Business, supplied
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PM: 10% Bahamian export tariff not in US discussions By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas’ antimoney laundering and counter financial terrorism regimes were discussed during high-level talks with the US, Prime Minist Philip Davis said yesterday. He said the topics were part of talks with US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in Washington DC. Speaking to reporters, Mr Davis said he addressed the allegations made in the latest international narcotics control strategy (INCSR) report and reiterated the strength of
the country’s compliance regime. He said a challenge to implementing a robust intelligence regime is limited resources and US officials have agreed to partner on intelligence sharing. “I think what is disturbing about the report is the suggestion that we don’t have the political will to process or to be more engaged in the enforcement of the anti money laundering and terrorism financing regime. But we do,” said Mr Davis. “Part of our challenges is our limited resource to have what I call the robust intelligence regime, and we
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