The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

MICHAEL Bayley, the president and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, says the company remains “very optimistic” about its bid to take over the Grand Lucayan resort, saying officials have had productive discussions about the deal with the Davis administration.

His comments come weeks after Tourism, Investments and Aviation Minister Chester Cooper described the proposed sale agreement for the resort as “egregiously bad.”

During debate on the Speech from the Throne earlier this month, Mr Cooper said: “After the government pumped over $150 million into this property, the group at the table wanted a loan from the government to develop the property, which they were only interested in developing during the second half of the decade.”

In late September, Mr Cooper said he still thinks the deal is an “egregiously bad” one, a view he held while in opposition.

Mr Cooper’s comments have raised questions about the future of the proposed deal, which involves a partnership between Royal Caribbean and ITM.

“I’m not able to discuss (the matter) in detail,” Mr Bayley said yesterday. “Obviously the new government I think has been in its position for, I’m not sure how long, I’m going to say 60 days. And I know that they’ve got multiple priorities that they are working on, but we have had productive discussions with the government regarding these projects that I’ve talked about.

“They’ve certainly expressed their concerns and how they see the future. We’re more than happy to work in a partnership way to achieve these goals. I think in the discussion we’ve had with the government representatives they’ve been constructive and positive. I think with a company that’s been coming to The Bahamas for over 50 years we feel very much part of that community. We feel like we want to be part of the solution.”

Mr Bayley also highlighted Royal Caribbean’s other local investments.

“We have our investment in Perfect Day, Cococay,” he said. “We invested a quarter of a billion dollars in developing that experience a couple years ago. It opened in 2019. We have a partnership with some of our competitors in the Grand Bahama Shipyard which, it went through a terrible time during the hurricane, and now we’re re-investing into the shipyard to bring that back alive so it can operate as a regional hub for the cruise industry and that we think is a really positive thing.

“We are still working––of course the pandemic caused a pause because of all the issues we were dealing with––we’re still very optimistic about the Freeport project, which is really the Grand Lucayan development, the destination development and resort, along with increased investments in the port.

“And we think and we hope we can bring that alive in the coming years and we think that’s going to be a game changer in Freeport. We’re also working on a project at Paradise Island, the Royal Beach Club, and we’re very close to finalising all the various discussions, etc. We’ve already created the concept and we’re very close to being able to start that project and we’ll continue to be a very attractive option for the number of tourists that The Bahamas has.”