The Tribune

* Says he 'understands dilemma' for hotel chain

* Bahamas racing to 'stabilise' tourism market

* Admits waste of 'time and effort' on test u-turn

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas is moving to urgently bring "stability" to its tourism industry, a Cabinet minister said yesterday, agreeing there was "an element of truth" to concerns voiced by Sandals' top executive.

Dionisio D'Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business that he "understood the dilemma" faced by Adam Stewart and other major resort owners/operators in trying to determine whether it was viable to re-open their resorts amid The Bahamas' ever-changing COVID-19 restrictions, curfews and lockdowns.

"He is of the view that the ever-changing face of affairs in The Bahamas - of locking down and opening up - is giving the feeling that there is no stability, and in order for hotels to open, they need stability," Mr D'Aguilar said in response to Mr Stewart.

"They need to know that the protocols that are currently place are going to remain in place. They don’t want to open up a hotel, start to sell the product and then find two or three weeks later that the island upon which I’m opening is on lockdowns and curfew and they can’t go to the beach, they can’t open their restaurants, and they can’t operate in the way that they advertised to their customers.”

Mr D’Aguilar continued: “I understand his dilemma, and what we’re attempting to do is bring some stability to the market. The fact that we have been hit with a substantial amount of community spread and, in our attempts to combat that, it has - in the minds of the hotel operators - made it a level of instability that is not conducive to them opening their hotels.

"So we need to bring some stability to the tourism sector and to the hotel market. I guess he was of the view that until that stability was evident, he wasn’t prepared to move, and I think there is a certain element of truth in what he said, because we are attempting to combat this level of community spread."

Referring to Mr Stewart and Sandals' home market of Jamaica, Mr D'Aguilar added: "They have everything in a bubble, as all of the hotels in Jamaica are all-inclusive, which is beautifully conducive to this type of environment.

"Tourists come and they go straight into the all-inclusive, and they basically vacation in place and there is no reason for them to come out other than to go back to the airport. But, as you know, many of our facilities are not like that, so we had to roll out depictions that have really created a level - in the minds of the hotel operators - that there was instability.”

Mr Stewart had last week told the Exuma Business Outlook webinar that this nation's COVID-19 restrictions are creating "confusion in the market", with Sandals leaving its re-opening in The Bahamas to last out of all Caribbean destinations because the way forward was more uncertain due to the Government veering between COVID-19 lockdowns/restrictions and the relaxation of such measures.

"One of the most complicated things that has happened for everyone, and not just the Government of The Bahamas, has been what is the pathway?" he added. "What will people need to do, and what has evolved? Of course, there have been a couple of lockdowns in The Bahamas due to spikes and the decisions that need to be made.

“With each one of those lockdowns, every action has an equal reaction. It’s created confusion in the marketplace, and other countries like the Dominican Republic and Mexico have decided just to open their borders and they have gotten ahead."

Mr D’Aguilar, meanwhile, reiterated that the Government's last-minute decision to drop rapid antigen testing for COVID-19 at the border - as well as a partnership with the Living With COVID Coalition that was announced just four days before - stemmed from the Ministry of Health's “technical advice" changing.

"Their view was that there was no evidence, and no science, to support the use of rapid antigen tests at the border because every traveller is asymptomatic, and there is a school of thought that when you use the rapid antigen test at the border for what, in all certainty, will be an asymptomatic traveller, you are wasting resources and giving your travellers a false sense of security," he argued.

"There is no evidence out there to support rapid antigen tests or the accuracy of rapid antigen tests in large asymptomatic populations. At the Prime Minister’s press conference you had a number of people say there is no support for testing at the border, and so it should not be used for that purpose. There is a school of thought that rapid antigen tests are only 25 percent to 30 percent accurate for asymptomatic patients.

The inference is that the Ministry of Tourism, and its partnership with the Coalition, were overruled as a result of what may have been a power struggle with senior officials in the Ministry of Health. The reversal came less than 72 hours ahead of the November 1 tourism re-opening, and after 12 weeks of talks between government and Coalition on obtaining the test kits, how the system would work and putting in the information technology to support it.

Asked about the costs involved, and money that was potentially wasted, Mr D'Aguilar said: "Let’s put it this way. I don’t know because it is too short thereafter. But there was obviously expenses incurred in travelling to all of the Out Islands and setting. There were expenses incurred to acquire some tests and distribute them, but my view is the cost wasn’t that significant.

"What was frustrating was a lot of people put a lot of time and effort in to make this system work, and then at the end of the day, the science was that it just doesn’t make any sense. There is no study out there to validate the accuracy on asymptomatic travellers. I don’t think the Government expended a significant amount of money, but it was more the time and effort people put into it free of charge in an attempt to do their civic duty.”