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The Tribune L AT E S T
Volume: 123 No. 17, Monday, December 15, 2025
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5OO BAHAMIAN JOBS AS BEACH CLUB OPENS Royal Caribbean opens club pledging revenue sharing and local ownership despite fears for downtown businesses By Fay Simmons Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net
JUNKANOO among the festivities during the opening ceremony for Royal Beach Club on Paradise Island.
ROYAL Caribbean’s long-awaited Paradise Island beach break destination has finally opened, employing more than 500 Bahamians in management, hospitality, entertainment and food and beverage operations. Prime Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, speaking at Saturday’s formal opening of the Royal Beach Club, said the project will give Bahamians a tangible equity ownership in the tourism sector - the country’s largest industry.
While Royal Caribbean holds a 51 percent majority stake, the Government and Bahamian investors will ultimately own the remaining 49 percent while 1 percent of revenues generated by the project will be directed to the Tourism Development Fund. The opening comes after long-standing controversy over land use, environmental concerns, governance and fears the project could divert cruise spending away from downtown Nassau. • See PAGE THREE and BUSINESS for more
FEES ‘ABSOLUTELY STRANGLING’ Abaco mourns teacher and LOCALS AND VISITORS ENJOY MARINA’S WINTER BUSINESS nephew car crash victims BEAT RETREAT ON BAY STREET By Neil Hartnell Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BIMINI and Abaco marinas are warning that new and increased boating fees and regulations “are absolutely strangling” winter season business, with one operator revealing they will be satisfied “if we could settle in at 50 percent of what we did last year”. Multiple northern
Bahamas marinas told Tribune Business that the full impact of reforms that accompanied the 2025-2026 Budget is now “starting to bite” with what is normally a peak period for the industry being marred by “widespread cancellations from long-time repeat visitors”, “minimal reservations” and “a sharp drop in forward bookings. • See BUSINESS for story
By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net CRIES and wails filled Full Assemblies of God Church on Saturday as mourners gathered in Abaco to say goodbye to veteran educator Monique Williams and her 13-yearold nephew, Terrance “TJ” Williams. Family members, educators, students, colleagues
and friends packed the church, many openly sobbing as tributes were delivered for Williams, remembered as an “extraordinary educator,” and her nephew, described as a “shining star” taken far too soon. Former prime minister and North Abaco MP Hubert A Ingraham was among those in attendance. The service unfolded FUNERAL - SEE PAGE SEVEN
COUNTRY MAY HIT LOWEST NON-COVID MURDER COUNT IN OVER A DECADE By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Chief Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas is on track for one of its lowest murder counts in over a decade. With three weeks remaining in the year, 80 people have been killed, well below last year’s pace. At the same point in 2024, 117 murders had been recorded, and the year ended with 120. The current trajectory
would mark the country’s lowest total since 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions suppressed violent crime. Excluding that year, the last time fewer than 90 murders were recorded was in 2009, when 86 people were killed. In more recent years, police recorded 128 murders in 2022 and 119 in 2021. The murder count stood at MURDER - SEE PAGE FIVE
DRUMMERS from the Royal Bahamas Police Force put on a show during the annual Beat Retreat at Rawson Square on Bay Street yesterday. Photo: Shawn Hanna See PAGE 12 for more
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