The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A prominent Briland hotelier yesterday said tourism operators “don’t know whether a bubble is going to pop” with resorts continuing to enjoy “unheard of” bookings for the summer months.

Benjamin Simmons, proprietor of The Other Side and Ocean View properties, told Tribune Business that the popular tourist destination was “jammed” with visitor activity as his boutique hotels currently remain on pace to produce an 85-90 percent occupancy rate for June.

Describing such rates as “pretty much unheard of” pre-COVID-19, he added: “We’re above pre-COVID comparatives. We still don’t know whether a bubble is going to pop, or whether demand will be sustained based on people being at home for a year-and-a-half, day dreaming about destinations and realising The Bahamas and the Out Islands are close.

“Or is this a fundamental shift in tourism demand where we have a very large number of people looking for small destinations or low-density products? It’s a probably a mix of everything. We would definitely be in this above trend demand for this period.”

Mr Simmons continued: “Most properties expect a drop-off in the summer months, but everybody in the island is saying that they’re jammed. We’re just full. We’re seeing it with dinner reservations. Getting a dinner reservation the week of your stay was almost unheard of. You could walk into a restaurant and find a spot no problem.

“You cannot do that at present. You have to reserve your dining. Pretty much everybody on the island is saying they’re full. We’re very grateful, but we wait for the other show to drop.”

Mr Simmons said the visitor booking window remains much-changed, with most visitors tending to confirm about two weeks out from their arrival, thus making long-term planning extremely difficult.

While his Harbour Island property will again by running in the 90 percent occupancy range for July, he explained that this was largely due to a block booking from one family that had always spent three weeks of the month in Briland for the past 25 years. 

“For August the first two weeks look completely dead, but that has been the pattern and everyone is making short-term booking decisions,” Mr Simmons said. “Two weeks is about when people are committing to their decision to come.

“August is traditionally when we get our European clientele, and that is still a bit uncertain because people are still anxious about whether the UK will open up despite British Airways’ return..... We’re just crossing our fingers and hoping we get to the end of the year without more lockdowns and that kind of stuff.”

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, in a briefing on the proposed public-private partnerships for six Family Island airports earlier this week, described the Family Islands as the fastest-growing and most resilient segment of the Bahamian tourism industry.

He said: “Tourism has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but we are roaring back at a phenomenal rate. As Americans become vaccinated, they are yearning to travel and our tourism sector is roaring back at a phenomenal pace.”

Describing the growth potential of the selected Family Island airports as “substantial” in the post-COVID era, Mr D’Aguilar added: “There isn’t sufficient headroom in our Budget to do these airports out of the public purse..... The Government wants to enhance the infrastructure that visitors meet in these islands.

“The first impression is the airport infrastructure, and in most instances the growth of airport infrastructure has not been able to keep up with demand. Our Family Islands are very high-end, very boutique and we like to say they are designed for social distancing.

“That component of our arrivals is most resilient. No matter what happens, the attractiveness of our Family Islands grows unabated as people look for more off-the-beaten path types of activities. That part of the tourism arrivals has the greatest potential for growth.”