The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The British Colonial Hilton's top executive last night confirmed the resort will this Friday "suspend operations" until October due to the latest COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Pablo Casal, the downtown Nassau hotel's general manager, told Tribune Business it will place more staff on temporary furlough as a result of its decision to cease resort activity for August and September although he declined to discuss the numbers involved.

He did, though, confirm that the British Colonial Hilton had acted after the Government's latest lockdown measures - especially the tightened border restrictions on incoming travellers - further choked-off the flow of guests and tourists.

"We are suspending operations, not closing, with effect from Friday," Mr Casal told this newspaper. "We will suspend operations for August and September. We will come back in October."

He added that the move was in response "to COVID-19 and the new closing of the borders, and what has happened. It's just because of that; the COVID-19 circumstances".

"We are putting the staff on temporary furlough. We have already done that for some, and we will have some more," Mr Casal said. "We're not talking numbers right now. It's a tough time."

The British Colonial Hilton's move, which takes effect from Friday, July 31, is the latest blow to a Bahamian hotel and tourism industry that has been left reeling from the heath and travel-related blows inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It follows the likes of RIU Paradise Island, Sandals Emerald Bay and Resorts World Bimini in opting to halt operations amid a second wave of resort closures.

The resort, which attracts more corporate customers than rival properties, also managed to remain open - albeit with "limited services" - during the COVID-19 first wave that featured a nation-wide lockdown and the tightest business and personal movement restrictions seen to-date.

Its loss further reduces the accommodation options for essential and corporate travellers who must visit The Bahamas during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the British Colonial Hilton having likely calculated that health and financial risks (losses) associated with remaining open far outweigh any benefits. This is especially since August and September were traditionally the slowest months in the tourism calendar pre-COVID-19.

Figuring prominently in its calculations will also have been the Government's decision to ban all commercial air travel between The Bahamas and US with effect from last Wednesday, which cut off the major access route into this nation for the stopover tourists the resort relies upon.

And, although this was swiftly converted into a 14-day quarantine for all travellers coming by commercial airline regardless of nationality, the new measure will still have the same effect of deterring tourism and non-essential visits to The Bahamas.

The British Colonial Hilton, which is owned by China State Construction, the contractor that built the $4.2bn Baha Mar resort and is now completing the $200m Pointe expansion adjacent to the downtown resort, had previously reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic's effects by permanently terminating 15 percent of its workforce as initial restrictions were eased.

Mr Casal, its general manager, in an e-mailed response to Tribune Business inquiries then, confirmed: "As a result of COVID-19, the hospitality industry is seeing an impact to business that is unprecedented.

"Given the direct effect this has had on our hotel, we have worked with ownership to evaluate options that help us ensure the continued viability of the hotel. After careful consideration, we were regretfully forced to reduce our workforce. This difficult decision reduces our workforce by approximately 15 percent, including management, at this time."

Around 30 staff were thought to have been impacted. Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union's (BHCAWU) president, confirmed at the time that 22 of his union's members were impacted, with most of the job cuts occurring the in the banqueting and catering department.

He added that the union had unsuccessfully sought to persuade the resort to hold-off, citing the fact that the Government has extended the 12-week period before mandatory redundancy kicks-in to one month after the COVID-19 emergency powers order ends.

Mr Woods was unavailable for comment on the British Colonial Hilton's "operations suspension" before press time last night.