The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Association of Bahamas Marinas (ABM) president yesterday voiced fears that anticipated bad weather may “knock 10-15 percent off” visiting boater traffic this Thanksgiving holiday.

Peter Maury told Tribune Business that the rough weather forecast for much of this week was already deterring some Florida-based boats and yachts from making the crossing to The Bahamas during a period that traditionally launches the winter tourism season.

With his Bay Street Marina set to run “somewhere in the 60s” on occupancy over the Thanksgiving weekend, and other marinas projected to be above 50 percent and in similar territory, he said: “We’re seeing good bookings. The only problem is that this weather’s not helping is. We’ve had quite a few boats coming over that were stuck in Florida, waiting for a weather window.

“We had a couple of hours today that were good, but then the weather picked up again. Last week was terrible. It didn’t help us much. We’re still going to be busy. We have a few boats over here [Bay Street Marina], Atlantis has a few, and the others have a few.

“It’s a good start. We’ll be somewhere in the 60s. Most people will be above 50 percent..... We’re glad for what we have. We can’t complain but the weather doesn’t help. It slows the boats coming down. Today is the only good day, and then it gets bad all week,” Mr Maury continued.

“It probably knocks 10-15 percent off our occupancies. I think we’ll still be in the mid-range 60 percents. It’s not so much the rain; it’s when it’s windy. We have a front coming through.”

Voicing optimism that more boats and yachts will be tempted to cross from Florida to The Bahamas later in the week, Mr Maury said local marinas were “still fighting the battle” to regain the small and mid-size vessels that were lost during the COVID-19 pandemic’s early stages.

“We have a lot of big boats that want to come over, but not a lot in the mid-range,” he told this newspaper. “It still doesn’t fill up all the slips. We’re still fighting that battle with the centre console craft, the 50-foot boats and the cruisers.

“We have a lot of big boats around, buying a hell of a lot of fuel, a lot of groceries, but many smaller slips in the marina are empty. We’re seeing a repeat of that. This time of year we like to be a solid 80 percent on occupancy. If we can get that [smaller market] that will definitely give us an opportunity to get to higher numbers. It’s just not as much as we would like.”

Mr Maury, though, said the Government was still enduring “some growing pains” when it came to the ease of processing a boat’s entry to, and exit from, The Bahamas. “We still have problems clearing the boats in,” he added.

“The entry process takes for ever, but hopefully the Ministry of Tourism and its parliamentary secretary, John Pinder, are going to focus on that and make it more streamlined. That will make a big difference going into 2022, as we should start to see a lot more traffic going into February and March. Provided the pandemic does not rear up again, The Bahamas should have a fantastic summer.”

The ABM president said Customs’ Electronic Single Window (ESW), or Click2Clear, system had turned what used to be a 30-minute effort into 340 questions that takes around four hours to complete.

Calling for the process to mirror the health travel visa, which can be applied for “in a matter of minutes” online, Mr Maury added: “Unfortunately with Customs you have to start from scratch when the boat comes into, and goes out of, the country.

“There are five different agencies dealing with it. There are so many aspects to it, and in my opinion we have made it a difficult process. You have to start from zero every time.” With visiting boaters having to deal with Customs, Immigration, the health travel visa, cruising permits, fishing permits and, potentially, charter fees, Mr Maury said the process would be much easier if online.

This, he added, would also assist with fee collection. Mr Maury, though, said Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister and minister of tourism, investments and aviation, had told the industry at the recent Fort Lauderdale Boat Show that he was assigning Mr Pinder to address the problem. “We seem to like collecting a lot of paperwork,” the ABM chief said.