The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar said yesterday he is hopeful things will improve for the country’s tourism industry “during the course of the year” as vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 continue to be rolled out worldwide.

On Monday, Baha Mar confirmed it has made another 100 staff members redundant as it prepares to reopen its high-end Rosewood and SLS resort properties.

Yesterday, the Tourism Minister said the move further exposes some of the challenges faced by the hotel industry as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to impact travel internationally – therefore resulting in low occupancy levels.

However, he said while some Baha Mar workers will no longer be called back to work, others will be re-engaged with the re-opening of the SLS and Rosewood.

“There are going to be ebbs and flows in the hotel sector,” Mr D’Aguilar said before attending Cabinet.

“At the same time, you’re having the downsizing at Baha Mar, they’re about to open the SLS and Rosewood, so you’ll see workers being called back to work there. As we progress through the year, I am of the view that as more people get the vaccine and are emboldened to travel, more people will travel.

“During the course of the year, things will begin to get better. Culminating the end of the year where I think we shall have a fairly robust Christmas at-least compared to the Christmas in 2020.

“There are, we have to understand, impediments to travel. There are no flights to Europe because they are in a constant state of lockdowns, opening up, lockdowns. Canada has banned all flights to the Caribbean through the 30th of April.”

He added: “World leaders are recommending to their citizens to not travel. When you come to The Bahamas, you need to get a PCR test. You have to upload to get a visa, you have to get a rapid antigen test to return to the United States. Some people feel like that’s just too much.”

Mr D’Aguilar said while he understands the nation’s current travel protocols may not be as tourism friendly as many would like, it’s important for the government to have certain measures in place to safeguard Bahamians.

“There’s a consequence to that and the consequence is there are impediments to travel,” he said.

He said as “more and more” of the world begins its mass vaccination efforts, only then will the government move to ease more restrictions, allowing for a further re-opening of the economy.

He said: “Obviously once we get to 70 or 80 percent, the expectation is that things will improve significantly because people will not be afraid of getting the virus.”

Until then, he said officials will continue to work on strategies to attract more visitors.

He added officials are expecting an uptick for the spring break period and also pointed to the successes seen in the high-end tourism market like yachting.

“Christmas was a relatively good month. We expect spring break and Easter for more people to make the effort to come but in terms of the mass tourism that we’re used to, it’s just not there yet but what I will say is in the very high end, niche market, the private aviation, the yacht business, they’re doing exceptionally well.”

“Wealthy persons who are looking to travel have rediscovered The Bahamas because we have so much to offer. We have all our different islands and so for them to come in their yachts and move seamlessly through our country without any impediments as compared to the Southern Caribbean... who have these different entry protocols.

“We find that The Bahamas is becoming very attracted to the yacht and high-end travellers.”

While speaking in the House of Assembly on Monday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced that the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will move The Bahamas from a level three travel health notice to a level two.

The CDC had previously issued a level four travel advisory against The Bahamas.

Yesterday, Mr D’Aguilar said the low COVID-19 numbers in The Bahamas justifies the move.

He told reporters: “We were at four and we moved to three and we certainly believe our numbers are there and justified to move us to a (level) two and every movement for those travellers that check that stuff, that’s very important so it was great when we moved from four to three and it would be even better when we move from (level) three to two.”