The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

RUM Cay is shaping up as the “catalyst for adventure tourism” in the Bahamas, a resort owner and operator on the island telling Tribune Business yesterday that this market could serve as a “gap filler” for Family Island resorts in the “off season”.

 Bobby Little, who runs the Rum-Cay based Island Extreme Ventures along with business partner Jesse Cors,said that after three years the operation had developed a significant following, and they were looking to expand the business to other islands such as Abaco, Exuma, the Eleutheras and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“This is a whole new market that will bring a lot of business, and because there are so many islands we are looking at the uniqueness of each; what each island is capable of facilitating,” said Mr Little, owner of the Sumner Point resort and marina.

“When you look at the hotels and resorts, it’s a very strategic market that’s only busy between six and eight months a year. There are three-four months a year where the resorts don’t have much going on. When it goes down what do they do? They have to cut back or close down for a month or two. I think this is something that could help. It’s a gap filler.

“It’s a specialised market, but it’s very big all over the world. I think this is something we could add on. In a sense we have used Rum Cay as a catalyst to start it off. We have a very strong following. We have been doing skydiving, surfing, paddle boarding, free diving and kitesurfing.

“There are just people from all over who want to come and do these things. We have 20-30 magazines that want to come down and just do photo shoots in Rum Cay,” said Mr Little.

He added that he has generally booked groups of 12-19 persons to fly in via charter to Rum Cay, acknowledging that the island is a still a difficult place to reach with no airline currently providing regular service.

“The thing with this sort of business is that when the weather is bad people want to come to the Bahamas for some of these things we are doing. Right now there is a tropical depression out there. Most people would want to get out but, believe it or not, we thrive on these things because when they go east and north of us they create these big ocean swells. Rum Cay gets 10-15 foot waves,” said Mr Little.

He said he was looking at two properties, one in Exuma, and another in Abaco. “We are going go to there, analyse it, look at their waters and find people in the area capable of teaching people how to kayak, fishing off kayaks and that sort of thing. All we really would become is the booking agent at this end,” said r Little.