The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A cabinet minister yesterday said "I don't like, but understand" the decisions taken by Baha Mar and Sandals to postpone their COVID-19 reopenings beyond July 1 to the fall/winter period.

Dionisio D'Aguilar, minister for tourism and aviation, said: "I think a number of the resorts have looked at what their bookings will be like come July, and they have determined that to open wouldn't be economically viable. So they have decided to wait until their book of business grows.

"Now that we have our hard opening date for July 1 they can start to get into the market and let people know, determine how it is operating and then plan a more orderly opening of their business. I don't like it, but I understand it. I think that a number of the smaller hotels that are a lot easier to open will open.

"Those that are bigger, obviously you need a certain amount of scale to make it worthwhile to bring all of those persons back to work and start opening restaurants. If you take an Atlantis or a Baha Mar, those are huge properties, and to commission them and get them open takes an enormous amount of staff and resources. I think what they want to do is ensure they have the visitor load to make it worthwhile. "

Responding to concerns that his ministry's efforts were wasted in preparing the Tourism Readiness and Recovery Plan, Mr D'Aguilar said: "I wouldn't say wasted. I think all of the work that has been done has sensitised us to what is necessary to open in this new post-COVID environment.

"We had to go through the process of what the protocols would be, the health steps we would have to understand. So it gives us time to get it right and I think we will be wonderfully positioned when the larger resorts decide to open."

Mr D'Aguilar added that larger resorts "know better than we do" about what is happening in the market, saying: "They obviously have thousands of rooms and an incredible marketing machine that goes out there and tries to get people to book at their property.

"I guess they are seeing the load factors are what they are, and they are not initially impressed, so they are waiting until their book of business grows and they are in a better position to open and to minimise their losses. They feel that if they open now their losses would be horrendous, so they want to wait until it's more economically viable for them to open."

Uncertain of when the tourism industry will rebound, Mr D'Aguilar said: "If I can give it an educated guess I would say 18 months to two years for it to begin to ramp back up, and obviously with all of the social distancing and all the health protocols that are necessary, you can't have as much business as you used to have and observe the protocols put down by the health department.

"Everybody is actively looking for a cure to this virus. They are trying to restructure their business so they can operate with these new social distancing rules in place."