The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Grand Bahama resort is rebounding slowly from COVID-19’s devastation with occupancy rates - despite tripling from 2020 levels - still standing at just under 18 percent for the year.

Old Bahama Bay unit owners have been informed that occupancy rates still lag the 21.93 percent achieved in 2018, with linear feet sold in the property’s marina also recovering from last year’s pandemic-induced low but remaining below pre-COVID levels.

Island Ventures Resort and Club (IVRC), the entity formed by Old Bahama Bay’s 73 condo owners to keep the Grand Bahama resort open following Ginn’s 2011 default, told members in a recent update: “Resort operations have increased in 2021; not just to a normal activity, but have come back strong in our summer season months.

“Employees are working on full-time/part-time basis to make sure we are taking care of our guests how they all have been used to. After Labour [Day] when the season drops off, hours are reduced and reigned in. Total revenue year-to-date as of end-September is at $1.222m compared to our last year of fully functioning operations, which would be 2018, when we ended with $1.67m.

“It must be noted 2021 did not get started until April when the Bahamian government finally relaxed restrictions, which made the first quarter dismal, but we do hope to have a good holiday season in addition to the added revenue the Old Bahama Bay Charity Cup will bring in. Occupancy is up from 5.03 percent in 2020 to 17.96 percent in 2021. 2018 showed an occupancy rate of 21.93 percent.”

As for the marina, IVRC said: “Marina activity has increased, in large part due to room bookings having come back since April 2021. In 2018 we had occupancy linear feet sold of 29.19 percent, reaching a low of 6.65 percent during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and now back up to 23.34 percent.

“Total current revenue as of end-September is $832,521, while having $1.39m in 2018 and $218,792 in 2020. All of the fuel tanks have been sand blasted, cleaned and painted. New electronic pumps have been installed with back up pumps for redundancy. All bills with the local petrol company have been brought current and in good standing......

“The marina is being worked on to fix certain docks back to par as well as fixing electrical issues caused over time and by storms. The West Wall dock (fuel dock area) is currently receiving extensive structural repairs due to age-related lower support board failure and sea wall shifting. Various other docks were lifted and new supports are being installed, again due to age.”

And, when it came to marketing, IVRC told members: “We continue to provide live streaming of the resort through our YouTube channel as well as making collaboration videos with other popular YouTube channels. We will begin to do e-mail surveys all of guests to make sure we have adequate data and metrics.

“As of now on our YouTube channels we have roughly 60m views combined with all of the videos we have made, and most recently had another released on November 14. Our social media pages continue to increase in popularity and interaction.

“Our Website remains our best outreach to clients. The new look and design has truly help boost our numbers. So far we have 132,000 page hits, 58,000 sessions, with a 27.65 percent conversion rate and a very small bounce back rate of 18.98 percent.”