The Tribune

PRIME Minister Perry Christie almost sounded genuinely concerned when he recently said that there was a possibility that Sandals Emerald Bay on which so much money had been spent to develop an “incredibly beautiful product,” could close.

“And we have to try to see what model can work,” said Mr Christie, obviously with the object of preventing such a calamity.

It is rather late in the day to be shedding crocodile tears when during this year’s election campaign – according to our information at the time — certain persons of Mr Christie’s own government, and various of his supporters, encouraged Exumians to believe that once the PLP became the government, Emerald Bay’s “foreigner” staff would be sent packing and Bahamians — skilled or unskilled, no one seemingly gave this important reality a thought— would replace them.

In February last year, Sandals Emerald Bay executives, while taking reporters on a tour of the 13,000 sq ft property in Great Exuma, noted that Bahamians needed more specialised training and certification to take advantage of the growing opportunities at the five-star resort. The press were told that there was a void of skilled and certified workers on Exuma who were ready to take on numerous jobs at the property. Any businessman in the Bahamas today knows the truth of this statement. They also know that with a hostile, short-sighted Immigration policy, the problem that has stunted the growth of this country, could shut it down. If politicians are concerned about unemployment today, their myopic policies could lead to human calamity tomorrow.

We think that executives of the Sandals Resort must have been taken aback by the Prime Minister’s unsolicited statement, which seemed to suggest that a shut down was inevitable. And so Sandals released its own statement “to clear the air on the matter, in order to avoid any misunderstanding.” The owners admitted that the hotel was “facing severe difficulty in continuing operations at Emerald Bay because of the multitude of costs with operating from the Family Islands.” They admitted that the cost to operate the facility — particularly to the high level of service demanded by their customers — was “proving to be unsustainable.”

Again they highlighted the problem of overcoming “the limited pool of trained professionals on the island.” They also emphasised that they were not going to let their customers down — Sandals was a five-star resort and fully intended to remain so. That was the bottom line, and if they had to drop standards then the inevitable would probably have to be the inevitable. They said that they needed government’s cooperation and help to continue their operations.

In the past many other operations needed government’s help and understanding. In the days of Pindling, they never got it, and so they closed, leaving in their wake many unemployed Bahamians.

The Sandal’s plea for government cooperation brought back memories of “the greatest success story in agriculture in the history of the Bahamas,” which ended in weeds with almost all of the residents of Alice Town travelling throughout the islands looking for work; the closure of the Jack Tar hotel in West End after 33 years of struggle closed with 400 Bahamians jobless; Freeport’s Royal Oasis hotel also closing, leaving about 1,300 without work, in addition to a crippled International Bazaar, because without a hotel and guests, there were no clients for the shops in the bazaar. And what caused it all — union unrest (except in the case of Hatchet Bay) and a very hostile government that used denial of work permits for key personnel to bring investors to their knees. It was more than any investor could take. But the consequences for Bahamians, who never believed they would be left high and dry because of union agitation and government hostility, was and still is, especially in Freeport, devastating.

If our readers want to understand the problems that Sandals Emerald Bay on Exuma is now having, they should read the letter by Sharon Turner, published on page 4 of The Tribune on Monday, October 1.

We shall return to this subject tomorrow — to tell what the consequences could mean to Bahamians should Emerald Bay close — unless, of course, developing news takes us in a different direction.