The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

and NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Reporters

A Cabinet minister yesterday said the Government is “very close” to deciding when the Grand Lucayan hotel will reopen after it missed the original February 1 timeline set by the resort's Board.

Dionisio D'Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, speaking outside the Cabinet Office, said: “I think that the Government is very close to deciding that it should reopen. Obviously, conditions on the ground are not ideal. Tourism has been impacted significantly by president Joe Biden’s statement about the possibility of quarantine.

"Even though that has been walked back, that had a significant impact on travel, and then you have Prime Minister Trudeau’s statement banning all flights to the Caribbean by Canadian travellers."

Tribune Business sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Board of Lucayan Renewal Holdings, the Government-controlled special purpose vehicle (SPV) that owns the Grand Lucayan, is presently "in a holding pattern" awaiting a "definitive response" from the Government on when the property should re-open.

One contact added of the Government's position: "I think they probably want to open it, but it takes a lot of money and I don't know if they're willing to spend it. It wold take three weeks of concentrated effort to hire people and make it happen."

Re-opening costs would thus only add to the $100m-plus invested in the Grand Lucayan by Bahamian taxpayers amid the wait for the ITM/Royal Caribbean deal to progress to closing.

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, who represents the Bahamas Managerial Association (BHMA), the bargaining unit for the resort's former middle managers, said he had not been informed of any re-opening.

Should the Government make that move, he added: "At least I'd be a happy man because we'd get the jobs back."

Elsewhere, Mr D'Aguilar said the Government will not relax the present COVID-19 protocols on Family Island travel due to the emergence of new, "mutant" strains of the virus and the continued high infection rates in the country's key source markets.

"We are very concerned about these virulent strains. And so the Government is taking the decision whether or not to facilitate travelling to the Family Islands," Mr D'Aguilar said. "Right now the majority of our COVID cases are based in Nassau and, possibly, Grand Bahama. And we don't want that to go out into the islands.

"So the government is being cautious and we think we're being prudent. And so right now we're not going to roll back restrictions on travel to the Family Islands. And certainly, as people get the vaccine, the important thing to note with the vaccine is all that does is suppress the symptoms so you don't have to go to hospital. But it still means that you can get infected.

"So we are very concerned that even though you have the vaccine, you could be infected and come here. And, in fact, people in The Bahamas who have not received the vaccine, we have to make sure that we have proper protocols in place to ensure that Bahamians are protected from travellers coming in."

Despite this, Mr D’Aguilar said he was “encouraged” that a COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in the US is moving at an aggressive pace. He estimated that if the US could get to at least 2m vaccinations per day that it could be vaccinated within six months, which would bode well for Bahamian tourism.

The minister said he anticipates that by mid-2021 tourism's performance will be much improved, adding: "The short term, it’s probably going to be a little bumpy. As we get to the middle of the year, and the third quarter of the year, I envision that things will begin to improve. So that's my projection moving forward for the rest of 2021."

Baha Mar, meanwhile, last night denied Mr D'Aguilar's assertion that it planned to follow Atlantis' lead and re-furlough some of the 1,800 staff it brought back at the Grand Hyatt in response to present low occupancy numbers.

"We have no planned lay-offs for the Hyatt at this time," Robert Sands, Baha Mar's senior vice-president of government and external affairs, told Tribune Business. He spoke out after the minister said: "Baha Mar, of course, is opening up the Rosewood and the SLS, but downsizing its staff complement at the Hyatt.”