The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Family Island resorts yesterday voiced fears that the government may halt plans for the tourism industry’s July 1 re-opening as they make preparations to cater to guests from that date.

Krystel Brown, general manager of Rollez Villas Beach Resort on Cat Island, told Tribune Business: “We have a lot of interest domestically from Bahamians and residents here. We have a domestic booking for July 1. For international guests we have a lot of interest right now for July. We have a booking for August, but we have a few people interested in July 1.

“We are a little more cautious about that [re-opening date] given what the minister had recently said about maybe having to rethink the July opening, so we want to give our guests a clear indication that it is going to happen and we don’t want them to re-book. We have been attending the Ministry of Tourism’s readiness programme, and all of our staff are up-to-date with that and will be wearing protective gear.”

Ms Brown’s concerns were echoed by Angela Jackson, general manager of CarriEarl Boutique Hotel in Great Harbour Cay, the Berry Islands, who said: “We will be ready by the end of next week. We will certainly be ready. We are going to open on July 1. We had to submit our self-assessment to the [Hotel] Licensing Authority, and we have quite a few bookings for July already.

CarriEarl’s first bookings are scheduled for July 6 from private pilots. She added: “Some people are concerned that the government is going to change their minds about opening on July 1. It is a worry people have had that the prime minister would change his mind, but as far as we are concerned we will be opening on July 1 depending on government policies.”

Ms Jackson said her property will remain open until the end of August, then close in September to coincide with the traditionally slowest part of the tourism season. CarriEarl will not re-open until November.

Ms Brown, meanwhile, said of her property: “We have a few things that we are trying to complete right now. We are trying to install the touch-less sanitisation distributors. We just finished renovating the deck, which is where our guests eat dinner.

“We had long tables, which obviously doesn’t bode well for social distancing, so we cut those tables up and spread them out around the deck so that families can still eat together and still be separated from others at dinner, lunch or breakfast.”

Ms Brown: “We also erected some signs just reminding guests to remember the social distancing guidelines, and to wear masks if they prefer. We got some temperature guns so that once we check people in we can take their temperatures, and we are also going to be using it daily on our staff.

“In terms of rooms, we have villas so it’s not one big structure. All families will be separated anyway, so we didn’t have to do too much with the rooms. We did do some renovations just to upgrade our spaces for when we reopen. We have sanitising stations in the room as well as in all of our public areas and the decks.”

To use Rollez Villas’ kayaks and paddleboards, each guest has to sign the equipment out and, when it is returned, it will be sanitised and cleaned again before it is reissued to another guest.

Betty Francis, proprietor of Exuma’s Palm Bay Beach Club, said: “We’re gearing up for July 1 and we have bookings scheduled for after July 15, but I don’t know if they’re going to cancel and I don’t know what to expect. It’s all dependent on the airlines. It’s definitely going to be new normal; we won’t go back to where we were before.”

Ms Francis added that some mid-July bookings are local, and said Palm Bay has implemented “everything in the clean and pristine safety regulations” that the Ministry of Tourism had asked.

Marsha Bastian, owner of Harbour Inn Guest House on Great Harbour Cay in the Berry islands, said: “We are scheduled to open on July 1, and we’re trying to get everything in place. We have reservations calling in for August. We have no bookings for July as yet, but for August our bookings are international.”

She added that some Bahamians had inquired about availability this month because of a funeral reception, but the booking was not accepted “because there is some stuff the Ministry of Tourism wanted us to do before we really open the hotel”.

Ms Bastian added: “The Ministry of Tourism wanted us to put in place hand sanitizer and we have them on order right now, but we are still waiting on the Ministry to return an e-mail to us what all of the protocols are. I’m working for July 1, but if I can get everything in place before the end of the month then we will try for that.

“It’s just a four-room inn. We have both international and domestic tourism. We have a lot of tourists come in because we are situated right on the marina, so a lot of boat persons who stay in the marina would want a night rental for two or three nights just to get off of the boats. I saw a few boats out there on the marina now, but I think they were there before the COVID-19 emergency lockdown started.”