business@tribunemedia.net
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2021
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Tourism: 14% gap ‘very impressive’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net TOURISM is “in the best possible position it could be” given COVID19 uncertainties with July’s stopover visitors just 14 percent down on prepandemic comparisons, a Cabinet minister revealed yesterday. Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business that the industry had continued to deliver “a very impressive” rebound by attracting some 151,000 land-based visitors for July based on health travel visa data. While this represented just a 6,000 month-over-month increase compared to June’s 145,000 stopovers, Mr D’Aguilar added that the July figures were just 25,000 or 14 percent below their last pre-COVID comparison of 176,000 air arrivals during the same month in 2019.
• Minister hails July arrivals at 86% pre-COVID • Says key industry ‘in best position it could be’ • Has ‘no doubt’ 1m stopover target will be met With the gap between pre and post-COVID arrivals decreasing progressively every month, having been 30 percent in June, the minister said he had “no doubt” that The Bahamas will achieve his target of 1m stopover visitors for the 2021 calendar year.
DIONISIO D’Aguilar.
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THE National Tripartite Council (NTC) will meet today to develop a common position on whether employees should be made to pay for COVID testing amid fears the issue will explode into heated legal battles. Robert Farquharson, vice-chairman and chief
operations officer for the body created to resolve all workplace-related issues, told Tribune Business there has been “a significant increase” in inquiries from Bahamian workers as to whether their employers can require them to pay for weekly tests. Confirming that some of the largest Bahamian employers are the subject of these concerns, Mr Farquharson said he expected the issue to boil over into
CONCEPT DESIGN FOR ROYAL CARIBBEAN PI PROJECT.
Royal Caribbean pushes back PI Club completion By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net ROYAL Caribbean has pushed back the construction completion date for its $50m Paradise Island project to May 2023 even though no phasing is involved, its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reveals. The document, published ahead of the September 8
virtual public consultation on the cruise giant’s plans, says it hopes to start construction next month - a timeline that may now be regarded as optimistic given the permits and approvals that are still required. “Royal Caribbean proposes to commence construction in relation to the proposed project in October 2021. It
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FNM pledges BOB sell-off By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Free National Movement (FNM) yesterday pledged to sell-off the Government’s majority stake in Bank of The Bahamas if re-elected to office on September 16.
Unveiling its manifesto, the party promised to “divest the Government of its shareholdings in Bank of The Bahamas to a qualifying entity through an open and transparent process” although no further details were provided.
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litigation “in the very near future” after the likes of Atlantis warned that unvaccinated staff will have to pay for a weekly rapid antigen test to confirm they are infection free with effect from yesterday. However, Tribune Business previously reported that the Health and Safety at Work Act forbids employers from imposing any financial “levy” on staff
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THE PARADISE ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE.
Top cruise giant ‘running roughshod’ over PI fight • Entrepreneur taking ‘legal steps’ on RCCL move • Says his permission not needed on disputed acres • Competing Crown Land leases led to Gov’t turmoil
Council to seek consensus over COVID testing By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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ROBERT FARQUHARSON
DARRIN WOODS
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN entrepreneur yesterday said he is taking legal advice over fears Royal Caribbean will “run roughshod” over the disputed Paradise Islandbased Crown Land that is subject to a legal dispute.
Toby Smith, the Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club principal, told Tribune Business he plans to consult Wayne Munroe QC, also the PLP’s general election candidate for Freetown, on the “appropriate legal steps” he can take after the global cruise giant asserted in an e-mail that it did not need his permission
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