The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Just under 100 workers returned to the British Colonial Hilton when it re-opened a fortnight ago, the hotel union's president has told Tribune Business.

Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union's (BHCAWU) president, said it was “had to tell” how 2021 will shape up for the tourism industry due to ongoing uncertainty associated with COVID-19 and related vaccines, and the resulting impact this will have on traveller confidence.

He added: “Everything is really hinges on what happens with COVID-19 and how this affects the travelling public, as we've been seeing. So we really need to see what the final weeks in 2020 bring, and the first couple of weeks in 2021.”

The nearly-100 staff who have returned to the Hilton join the combined 4,300 brought back by Atlantis and Baha Mar, and the 100-150 hired at The Pointe, to at least bring some relief and encouragement that the industry which is the largest private sector employer has begun the long road to COVID-19 recovery.

The British Colonial Hilton, 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, likely convinced the British Colonial Hilton to follow suit.

The resort, 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 hotel.

Robert Sands, the Bahamas Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA) president, said he was looking forward to hitting the reset button in 2021 and setting the resort industry back on a path to progress.