The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar said officials are trying to persuade Club Med to reopen its Columbus Isle Resort earlier than December 2021 but admitted the government has a “difficult mountain to climb”.

A lawyer for Club Med recently wrote to Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis to say the operator is conducting a phased reopening of its resorts worldwide and that San Salvador’s remoteness and underdeveloped healthcare system places its resort in the later phase of the company’s reopening plans.

The resort, which employs about 190 Bahamians, is the key driver of San Salvador’s economy.

Mr D’Aguilar said yesterday: “Obviously we are actively seeking (a change) but (Club Med) had two major reasons for their decision. First of all, there are not adequate health facilities on the island of San Salvador; any guest that may fall ill or any staff that falls ill because a guest goes there would encounter a challenge.

“Secondly, in the event that a guest got sick, there are no options for them to be airlifted anywhere except to Nassau. Current rules indicate they can’t go to the States unless they’ve been out of the States for 14 days. Obviously our healthcare system is stressed as it is, so we’re not anxious to take on ill patients from other nations.

“The only option then is for them to return to their home country and most of them are European so that’s a transatlantic flight and they can’t go on a commercial plane if they’re ill. This creates an enormous conundrum for them. As they decide which locations they are going to open up, this one is fairly low on the list because their guests would have very few adequate options to deal with an outbreak.

“(Club Med) expressed concern about infecting the local population and there not being adequate facilities to deal with that. It’s a horrible conundrum. It’s very difficult to ease their concerns. While we will say there’s a very low rate of infection in the country and that it helps to take a PCR test prior to arrival, they see challenges. Even if we test people on arrival, what happens if they test positive or get sick? The government at this current time is doing what it can but it’s a difficult mountain to climb. We’re trying to bring their reopening date forward. Do we think it will be open for December 2020? No.”

Darrin Woods, president of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union, said the union has started preliminary discussions with Club Med on the way forward.

The resort’s employees have been receiving unemployment assistance from the government for months. But it is not clear how long that assistance will continue, with Mr Woods saying the resort may have to offer severance packages to its workers.

“We are advocating any governmental intervention to reduce the time they plan to reopen,” Mr Woods said. “We prefer people to return to work and be gainfully employed rather than be on unemployment assistance because by working they would make three times the amount the government gives them.

“People can’t be expected to wait 15 months for the club to open. (The resort) would have to make a decision on what is going to happen to those people in terms of severance. If you wait 15 months, there is no guarantee the government will extend this unemployment benefits programme beyond March 2021. When we spoke to Club Med representatives, we did say to them you can’t expect for employees to sit and wait 15 months for you to decide to open up. That’s unrealistic.”