The Tribune

• Hilton latest to delay re-opening indefinitely

• Minister: 'Too much emphasis' on October 15

• Bahamas had to 'signal we're ready to rumble'

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday urged Bahamians not to get hung up over the October 15 date for the hotel sector's re-opening as the British Colonial Hilton became the latest resort to delay its return.

Dionisio D'Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, suggested to Tribune Business that the "enormous emphasis" being put on this date was misplaced given that October is traditionally the second-slowest month in the Bahamian tourism calendar.

He told this newspaper that, rather than being a 'hard-and-fast' deadline by which all resorts must re-open, the Ministry of Tourism had instead intended it as a "signal to the market" as to when The Bahamas' largest industry will be ready for business once again.

And the choice of October, given the relatively minimal visitor flows normally enjoyed at this time, was also designed to give Bahamian resorts time to train staff, implement the necessary COVID-19 health and safety protocols and test them ahead of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays that mark the winter season's start.

"I don't know why there's this enormous emphasis on October 15," Mr D'Aguilar told this newspaper. "October is the second slowest month of the year. We've targeted, and want to get things finished, things in place, in time for opening at Thanksgiving or prior to Thanksgiving, and prepare ourselves for the Christmas season - what we can salvage from that.

"2020 will be a horrible year. But we have to send a signal to the market that we're ready to rumble.... People are not travelling as much as they used to. Let's start letting everyone know we're back in business, all the hotels will assess their own situation and, once they feel it's right, the groundwork and foundations have already been laid for when they re-open.

"Many, many, many hotels around the world are closed. We're going to set the conditions in place, let everyone re-open, airlift will come back and everyone will take it from there."

Mr D'Aguilar spoke out after the British Colonial Hilton informed staff late last week that Bay Street's anchor property will not return as planned on October 1, following a suspension of operations that has already lasted two months, and will instead remain closed indefinitely until COVID-19 infections improve in both major tourist source markets and in The Bahamas.

Pablo Casal, the downtown Nassau hotel's general manager, confirmed the move to Tribune Business, citing "market conditions" caused by the pandemic. He declined to comment further.

However, in its letter to staff, 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.”

Mr D'Aguilar, in response, said: "Obviously the longer it takes for those hotels to re-open, the more impactful it is on the economy. Market forces are market forces. Obviously this is a work in progress.

"The biggest impediment to tourism is this 14-day quarantine on arrival requirement. We have to figure out a way to deal with that. That's a major hurdle, and the market is telling us that. It's very difficult to have a tourism sector once one of the tenets of travelling to The Bahamas is quarantine.

"That's causing an enormous amount of uncertainty, and we have to address that and find a way to make it work."

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.

Its extended closure to an unknown date further reduces the accommodation options for essential and corporate travellers who must visit The Bahamas during the COVID-19 pandemic, while also prolonging the uncertainty for hundreds of staff members over when jobs and incomes will return.

The decision also adds to the number of major resort properties, including Baha Mar, Melia Nassau Beach, Sandals Royal Bahamian and Club Med, who have confirmed they will not re-open this month, with the latter two pushing their return back into 2021 - and, in the case of the latter, December of that year.

And, with Atlantis and other major resorts yet to confirm when they will come back, the British Colonial Hilton's decision will further raise the pressure on the Government to extend the individual and business assistance initiatives launched to lessen COVID-19's worst effects beyond end-September 2020 as funding has only been budgeted up to this point.

The Government has already financed a 13-week extension to the National Insurance Board's (NIB) unemployment benefit, taking such welfare to 26 weeks in total or six months (half a year). It had previously voiced hope that the recommended October 15 tourism re-opening will reduce the social security lines, but this now looks an increasingly distant prospect.

And, should there be no further extension of the temporary lay-off period that expires at end-September, employers will be mandated to pay workers they do not bring back their full severance pay as mandated by the Employment Act.

Yet weeks and months of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions, with no revenue coming in, will likely leave many companies struggling to afford this, while many workers may not want to accept severance packages given the difficulty in finding new jobs amid the depressed COVID-19 economy. However, financial pressures may compel others to accept these.

One furloughed hotel worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, told this newspaper yesterday: "It's almost like this is going right to the end of the year. I thought maybe the hotels might try to make a special effort to open up for Thanksgiving. That's still possible but uncertain.

"What's going to happen in the meantime if the Government does not extend unemployment benefit and the hotels are not opening? The Government will have to take into consideration that they are only giving us $150 a week, which is just grocery money for some people.

"Something is better than nothing, but at what point do you take the tough decisions? There are many persons close to retirement who would want to take a separation package."