The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Weddings industry professionals say the recent easing of COVID-19 restrictions will do little to help the battered industry because receptions remain banned.

Cindy Coakley-Knowles, the Bahamas Bridal Association’s president, told Tribune Business that removing restrictions on the number of people who can attend a church wedding does little to help as the ban on receptions has far greater impact for their business.

The latest changes to the government’s COVID-19 emergency powers, as unveiled by the Prime Minister last week, allow weddings to be held inside a church or “religious facility” provided the crowd size is limited to one-third of the capacity. However, no person “can host or attend” a wedding reception.

Ms Coakley-Knowles said: “The issue right now is still the reception. This is not going to make an impact on us at all. The reception is the way people in the industry make money when you look at the suppliers and the decorators. So increasing the amount of the ceremonies in the church doesn’t really help the industry that much compared to opening it to the reception.”

The industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. Apart from local weddings, many planners work with the Ministry of Tourism to arrange destination weddings at Bahamian resorts. Ms Coakley-Knowles said this makes up a “considerable” portion of her members’ earnings.

“As it relates to the destination market, there has to be a connection with what happens in tourism, because the destination wedding market brings in a significant amount of the revenue for tourism asnd plays a big part in that because we are a destination for weddings and honeymoon,” she added.

“The BBA really focuses on that market, and we work jointly with the Ministry of Tourism, so we are working with tourism to bring destination events here. But we can’t really accommodate the numbers here with a reception.”

Some 2,100 travel agents and professionals attended The Bahamas’ recent virtual weddings exhibition, which was designed to promote this nation as a destination for “romance”. Ms Coakley-Knowles said: “Usually with these events, only 40 percent of the registrants actually show up, but this time we had a 100 percent attendance rate. Everyone who registered showed up.

“We are starting to see leads come in through Ministry of Tourism from this. While it is slow, it is on a weekly basis or even on a daily basis. We’re starting to see an increase in that regard. But we unfortunately still have to hold back because we can’t give the customer what they really want, which is to have a Bahamian experience and reception.

“While the BBA would like to see things move at a faster pace, we also understand we have to be seen as doing the right thing internationally.” Dionsio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, recently said the destination weddings market attracted more than 182,000 visitors and $400m worth of revenue for The Bahamas pre-pandemic in 2019.