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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2023
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Cruise port predicts 20% visitor surge to over 5m By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
t 5PQ FYFDVUJWF AUISJMMFE CZ VQHSBEFE GPSFDBTU NASSAU Cruise Port is projecting a near-20 percent jump in passenger t N QBTTFOHFS SJTF volumes to over five million for 2024, it revealed PWFS QSF $07*%ùJO A yesterday, as it watches for on any fall-out from Carnival’s Grand Bahama plans t /P TJHO PG JNQBDU GSPN from 2025 onwards. $BSOJWBM (# QPSU QMBOù Michael Maura, the Prince George Wharf operator’s chief executive, told Tribune Business he was “thrilled” that Nassau is poised to achieve a previously-stated ambition of Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister and minister of tourism, investments and aviation, by next year breaking the five million cruise arrivals threshold for the first time. Data seen by this newspaper shows that Nassau Cruise Port is forecasting it will receive 5.364m passengers during the 2024 calendar year, a 19.6 percent or 882,000 increase
on the 4.483m arrivals projected for the 2023 full year. Both figures represent major rises over previous predictions, with Mr Maura forecasting as recently as five months ago that Nassau Cruise Port had confirmed bookings for 4.2m passengers this year and between 4.5m-4.6m in 2024. The revised figures represent increases of 283,000 or 6.7 percent for 2023, and at least 764,000 or 16.6
percent for 2024, if these projections become reality. And both this year and next are predicted to easily surpass the pre-COVID high of 2019. The 2024 projection is some 1.5m, or 39 percent, higher than the 3.859m passengers that passed through Prince George Wharf during the 2019 calendar year, while this year’s forecast is for arrivals to be 16.2 percent higher than the last preCOVID period. Mr Maura told Tribune Business that the $322.5m
THE BAHAMAS’ first-ever crowd funding platform has slammed as “ridiculous” assertions that it poses a threat to capital markets integrity while accusing regulators of portraying it as a “Mom and Pop” operation. D’Arcy Rahming senior, ArawakX’s chairman
and chief executive, told Tribune Business that the Securities Commission was “beating us over the head for every minor infraction” as the two sides continue to battle ahead of the October 13 Supreme Court hearing over the latter’s bid to wind-up the platform. Responding to allegations by Christina Rolle, the Securities Commission’s executive director,
MICHAEL MAURA invested in upgrading Nassau Cruise Port, especially its marine infrastructure and enhanced capability to accommodate three of the world’s largest vessels at the same time, was having a “material” impact as shown in forecast passenger arrivals. Noting that the Bahamian capital is already receiving larger ships compared to pre-COVID years, he added that both the Government and
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D’ARCY RAHMING SNR
Commission says ArawakX Central Bank: Don’t send ‘squandered the opportunity’ dormant accounts ‘direct’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE SECURITIES Commission has accused The Bahamas’ first-ever crowd-funding platform of “squandering the opportunity” to show why it should not be wound-up via the Supreme Court. Christina Rolle, the capital markets regulator’s executive director, alleged in an October 5, 2023, hearing that ArawakX and
its top officials said they came to the September 13 hearing before the Securities Commission “with the intention of not addressing any of the concerns” relating to its solvency, operations and corporate governance practices. ArawakX and its senior executives have repeatedly complained that they have not been afforded due process by the Securities Commission, and not given
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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE CENTRAL Bank has told its commercial bank and other licensees to stop sending clients seeking to recover dormant accounts directly to it as such applications must come from the institutions itself. Karen Rolle, the regulator’s inspector of bank and trust companies,
Ex-Sky Bahamas chief’s ‘compliance nightmare’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
that ArawakX’s placement into provisional liquidation “is necessary for the protection of the investing public and to maintain the integrity of the capital markets in The Bahamas”, he argued that the crowdfunding platform had done nothing to justify such actions. Arguing that ArawakX has enjoyed a “two-thirds success rate”, with four
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ArawakX slams ‘ridiculous’ capital market threat claim By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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in her 2023 third quarter letter to the industry said these inquiries must be initiated by financial institution’s on the client’s behalf. “There continues to be room to clarify the administrative processes around dormant funds. The Central Bank is still receiving occasional inquiries, where banks have referred customers directly to the Central Bank to recover
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SKY Bahamas principal says he is enduring “a compliance nightmare” as the now-defunct airline “lives to fight another day” in the battle over its former Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) hangar. Captain Randy Butler, in legal filings, asserted that the “false” fraud allegations levelled against him by Sky Bahamas’ former chief financier, Fred Kaiser, have resulted in Bahamian commercial banks refusing to open accounts or otherwise do business with himself and the airline. His assertion that “no commercial bank in this jurisdiction is willing to open or allow me to have accounts” until the dispute is resolved by the Bahamian judicial system was revealed in a ruling that temporarily at least - clears the way for Sky Bahamas to appeal an earlier Supreme Court verdict that ordered it to pay $220,000 plus
RANDY BUTLER interest to the owner of its LPIA hangar. That entity, AOG Maintenance Company, is controlled by Mr Kaiser. The latter’s attorney, Michael Scott KC, subsequently demanded that Sky Bahamas and Captain Butler pay “security for costs” - a performance bond to ensure his client’s legal costs are covered should they win the appeal on the basis that the airline “is either insolvent or prospectively insolvent” and would thus be unable to pay the bill.
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