The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government was yesterday urged to “redouble” its efforts on energy reform and fighting crime, a leading tourism executive warning that both were vital to “maximising” investment and Bahamian job opportunities in the sector.

Robert Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice-president of government and external affairs, told Tribune Business that success in these two areas was critical to tourism’s future success, as he called on the Government to treat them “as urgently” as the Gaming Bill.

Speaking after that legislation was finally tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday, Mr Sands said: “For tourism to be successful in the future and going forward, the Government has to focus on two other critical policy and social issues that affect the tourism industry and community as a whole.”

He identified the rising crime level on New Providence, especially, and the provision of “reliable, cost efficient energy” as the “pressing issues” that needed to be addressed if the Bahamian tourism/hotel industry was to “maximise” current and future profits.

Addressing energy and Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) reform specifically, Mr Sands told Tribune Business: “I can’t stress how much we urge the Government to redouble its efforts on revitalising the country’s energy programme.

“Cost efficient, reliable energy is badly needed to maximise the billions of dollars already, and which are being, invested to enhance and expand the Bahamian tourism industry.

“We think that with the amount of investment made, we think addressing these two critical points will bring stability, and also the opportunity for profitability, in the Bahamian tourism industry.”

The hotel sector, as arguably the country’s largest energy consumer, has made its concerns over the Bahamas’ relatively high electricity costs known for more than a decade.

The Tourism Task Force’s 2003 report on Trade Liberalisation cited energy costs as one of the main factors impeding the sector’s international competitiveness, creating the impression that the Bahamas was a high-cost, inefficient destination.

Comparing a hotel in the Bahamas with similar-sized resorts in the Caribbean and the US, the report found that energy costs for the property in this nation were 36 per cent and 114 per cent higher, respectively.

And that was before the oil price spikes seen from 2008 onwards, which sent bills for both BEC’s residential and commercial customers soaring to new heights.

Pressure from the hotel industry was cited by the late Al Jarrett, then-BEC chairman, as one reason for the ill-advised cut to BEC’s base tariff in 2004, which set the Corporation on the downward spiral into its current financial mess.

Yet it was only when BEC’s financial and operational health reached crisis point that the Government elected to embark on serious reform, with successive administrations - PLP and FNM - either ignoring the problem or moving to slowly to reduce energy costs.

Mr Sands yesterday told Tribune Business that tackling crime and energy were “as urgent an issue as the Gaming Bill. They are all urgent”,

On crime, he added: “This something we have to get under control. The quicker we get it under control, the better for the Bahamas. The sector stands ready, willing and able to help the Government address this pressing issue of crime.”

Mr Sands is the second senior tourism executive to express concern about the escalating crime problem within the past two weeks, indicating the industry’s increasing nervousness over the potential negative impact on its operations.

George Markantonis, Atlantis’s top executive, recently told Tribune Business: “We’re very concerned, I know everybody is concerned around the country. These aren’t the kinds of headlines that encourage visitation. I just hope we can get it under control sooner or later.”

The hotel/tourism industry’s fear is that crime-related headlines and reports on the Internet, let alone actual incidents that impact visitors, could spark a reduction in tourist number with all the knock-on consequences that would entail.

As Mr Sands put it: “If we drive tourism revenues, we increase the tax base, we create job growth and continue to expand international tourism for the Bahamas, and the Bahamas will have a sustainable competitive advantage.”