The Tribune

* Downtown resort to 'partially' return

* Union chief hopes momentum stays

* Concern remains over US infections

By YOURI KEMP

and NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Reporters

The hotel union's president last night said The Bahamas' battered tourism product must "keep the wind in its sails" after the British Colonial Hilton confirmed it will “partially” re-open on December 15.

Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union's (BHCAWU) chief, told Tribune Business the industry needed to maintain the momentum created by the return of major New Providence resorts to create Christmas cheer for at least some hotel workers and their families.

He spoke out after Pablo Casal, the British Colonial Hilton's general manager of the hotel, told this newspaper: “I am writing you just to let you know that we are re-opening December 15. We are very happy to re-open our doors to guests although because of demand it will be a partial opening of our whole inventory.”

The downtown Nassau resort, which effectively acts as the 'anchor property' for Bay Street, first "suspended operations" on August 1 due to the devastating impact the COVID-19 pandemic and associated containment measures were having on its business and the wider tourism industry as visitor numbers dried up.

It had aimed to initially re-open in early October, but this was delayed indefinitely due to continuing market uncertainty caused by soaring COVID-19 infection rates in both The Bahamas and in major source markets such as the US.

In its letter to staff at that time, the British Colonial Hilton wrote: "We were hoping to resume our operations in October but, unfortunately, this is not the case. We continue to see an increase and spread of the virus with no flattening of the curve right now. As a result, we are now faced to further extend the temporary suspension of our operations effective October 1, 2020, until further notice.”

However, the replacement of the mandatory 14-day quarantine for all visitors with a more frequent COVID-19 testing regime, coupled with the re-opening of other major Nassau/Paradise Island resorts appears to have convinced the British Colonial Hilton to follow suit. It will return five days after Atlantis re-opens on December 10, and two days before Baha Mar's Grand Hyatt property comes back on December 17.

The British Colonial Hilton, which attracts more corporate customers than rival properties, 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.

Mr Woods, the hotel union president, said he and other executives did not know how many workers will be recalled, and which areas of the property will be opened, as they had only been informed of the British Colonial Hilton's move on Monday and had yet to meet with management.

Some 30 workers were terminated by the resort in May 2020 during the early stages of the pandemic, and Mr Woods said some 160 remain on temporary furlough. He added that the British Colonial Hilton's return provides further much-needed momentum for the rebound of an industry that is The Bahamas' largest employer, economic activity source and foreign exchange earner.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," Mr Woods told Tribune Business. "It's going in the right direction finally. We just need to see if we can keep the wind in the sails. This is what we were hoping for once we saw the major hotels begin to open up..... that the smaller ones would follow suit.

"Once the major hotels move in that direction it pulls the smaller ones, all of them, to get a bit of whatever's happening. We're hoping that the people who normally travel in winter will come to where it is a bit warmer for them.

"The persons who were laid off will go back to work in phases, I assume. Our industry works on occupancy, so in the interim we wouldn’t have 100 percent occupancy. So I would expect some would go back on the first day and others will follow suit in phases.”

Mr Woods said he remained concerned, though, about the health and safety risk posed to union members and all hotel workers by the skyrocketing COVID-19 infection rates in The Bahamas' major US source market, although he acknowledged this nation cannot afford to delay its re-opening because of it.

"We can do all we need to do here, but if it doesn't happen on the outside, externally, we may be defeating the purpose," he added of COVID-19 mitigation measures. "That's why it's going to be so important that the testing and re-testing is done. It's [tourism] critical to what we do, so we have to find a way where we'll be able to co-exist with this whole COVID-19 situation."

The hotel union chief voiced particular concern that a visitor to The Bahamas could catch COVID-19 after taking their PCR test pre-travel, and bring the virus to the country while going undetected for five days until they take a rapid antigen test.

While Atlantis, Baha Mar, Comfort Suites and now the British Colonial Hilton have now all announced pre-Christmas re-opening dates, two of Baha Mar's properties - the Rosewood and SLS - as well as its Melia Nassau Beach Resort are eyeing a February 2021 return. Sandals, too, is eyeing a similar timeframe for its two Bahamian resorts.