The Tribune

A Grand Bahama businessman says Freeport's billing as an industrial centre might be turning away potential investment in hotels and tourism-related businesses.

James Rolle, Dolly Madison Home Centre's general manager, told Tribune Business: “I think a lot of potential investors are still sceptical as to whether it's worth the risk of investing in Grand Bahama when really there's nothing happening here on the tourism side.

"The whole concept of Grand Bahama is more of an industrialised location, so when you when you are trying to integrate tourism projects in an industrialised area there has to be a whole lot of planning in terms of being able to integrate those multiple industries.”

He argued that when tourists come off the ferry or cruise ship, and drive through Freeport, all they largely see is industrial infrastructure. He added that this was potentially a major turn-off for investors as it suggests Grand Bahama is not appealing as a tourist destination.

"The Grand Lucayan was the main hotel on Grand Bahama. I think more than 50 percent of the people employed in the tourism industry on Grand Bahama worked at the Grand Lucayan," Mr Rolle said, adding that smaller hotels such as the Wyndham Fortuna are more like “all-inclusive clubs”.

Greg Langstaff, owner of the Grand Bahama Brewing Company, said the continuing wait for the Grand Lucayan's sale to be closed continued to overshadow the island's economy. He added, though, that with the “reality of COVID-19” it would likely have been closed in any event.

Noting that Royal Caribbean, the Grand Lucayan's potential buyer in partnership with ITM, has not been operating for almost one year, Mr Langstaff said: “The cruise industry doesn't have the cash flow that they thought they were going to have.

"That's just a difficult one to gauge if you weren't on the inside of the buyer's end. The cruise industry around the world has had zero cash flow for a year.”

Brent Collins, chief executive of Freeport-based Power Equipment Ltd, said the Grand Lucayan sale's dragging was “huge” for the island, especially its tourism product.