The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Atlantis’s top executive yesterday warned there will be “casualties” among New Providence’s resorts if the island keeps adding hotel rooms without a matching increase in airlift.

George Markantonis, Brookfield Hospitality’s president and managing director, reiterated to Tribune Business that there was little point in developers “building as many rooms as they want” if sufficient visitor numbers were unable to access New Providence.

Speaking after China State Construction unveiled plans to build a new luxury condo hotel on the six acres immediately adjacent to the British Colonial Hilton, Mr Markantonis said it was airlift volume - rather than this new development itself - that gave him concern.

He explained that Atlantis’s “multi-dimensional” nature gave it a different business model to the British Colonial Hilton and the proposed new hotel, with the Paradise Island property operating a template that had been “tried and tested” over two decades.

“It all comes down to one thing. That is airlift,’ Mr Markantonis told Tribune Business, when asked if the British Colonial Hilton’s new owner and the associated expansion plans, together with its equity interest in Baha Mar, presented a threat to Atlantis’s dominant competitive position in the Bahamian resort market.

“Everyone can move ahead and build as many rooms as they want in Nassau,” the top Atlantis executive added. “If we do not have the commensurate airlift, there will be casualties.”

Some observers believe that Baha Mar’s delayed opening, pushed back until late Spring 2015, could be a ‘blessing in disguise’ as it will give the Bahamas more time to generate the extra airlift required to fill the 2,200 net increase in New Providence’s hotel room inventory.

Current estimates predict that the island requires 400,000 extra incoming airline seats annually to meet the needs of all its resorts, and ensure that access/supply is maintained at acceptable levels.

Mr Markantonis, though, yesterday disclosed that there were already key dates in the tourism calendar where airlift capacity into New Providence failed to meet pent-up demand.

“You can’t just add rooms and not airlift,” he told Tribune Business. “A good example is the Thanksgiving weekend.

“There is not enough airlift in the Bahamas and to the Bahamas, and not enough in the US. The ticket prices are exorbitant.

“We have tried to see if we could charter private planes to fly people in over Thanksgiving, and can’t even get a charter. The airlines have already secured them all.”

Mr Markantonis did not respond directly to fears expressed last week by former deputy prime minister Brent Symonette, who questioned whether China State Construction’s ownership interests at Baha Mar and the Hilton would allow it to manipulate room rates and squeeze Atlantis out of business.

“They could wipe Atlantis out of business,” Mr Symonette warned. “Atlantis may not be able to match it.”

China State Construction plans to begin building its new luxury condo hotel next year, but Mr Markantonis said he had yet to see the plans, so could not give an informed judgment - even though the proposed amenities around the new hotel will be similar to Atlantis’s Marina Village.

“Projects are announced with much more fanfare than they actually materialise into,” he told Tribune Business. “We would not be concerned if a hotel opened there, as Atlantis is not a hotel.

“This is an integrated resort with multiple entertainment facilities. It’s multi-dimensional. It’s not just rooms on a beach with a swimming pool.

“Our business model is tried and tested for 20 years, and it’s different from the British Colonial. It will be a wait and see situation; take it as it comes. But we’re not overly concerned right now.”