The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

BAHA MAR president Graeme Davis said the resort is marking its fifth year anniversary with record success as the COVID-19 pandemic appears to wane.

“Certainly for us as an investment here in The Bahamas, for our ownership group, we are certainly very pleased with the progress we’re making this year, really one of the first years of really seeing the financial success start to turn,” he told reporters yesterday.

The resort hosted a cocktail reception last night that attracted some top government officials and others. Tourists fill the mega property, highlighting how far it has come since the rocky period of uncertainty that preceded its opening in 2017.

“We are seeing the best results that we’ve ever had since we opened in the month of March and certainly the highest occupancy in April that we’ve had since we opened as well,” Mr Davis said.

As the tourism rebound continues, Mr Davis said he hopes for additional changes to COVID-19 protocols.

“The next evolution for us would be really to eliminate the testing requirement to enter the country,” he said. “We’re seeing Jamaica and Aruba already removing that mandate of testing into the country and also to see the United States remove the testing requirement to go back to the United States. That would be for us the ideal evolution of what’s next.”

Mr Davis said Baha Mar employs 5,000 people and is “ninety-nine and a half percent” finished completing its master plan.

Inflation, nonetheless, is affecting the resort as it is everywhere else.

“It is a struggle,” he said. “And when our guests see the prices that we had to increase, room rates increase based on the supply chain increased, cost of freight coming to The Bahamas, duty is there, VAT is there, it’s so important for our associates and for all of us in the community when we see our tourists and we’re charging them prices that we need to charge in order to make a profit, that we provide exceptional service, that we deliver on that exceptional service and provide them price value experience, that there is a value for price paid. We just announced an increase for all of our eligible associates today. We’re working on that cost of living allowance for our associates as we speak.”

Asked about national policies in response to inflation, Mr Davis said: “I’ll leave that up to the government. I think you know, look we leverage as best we can our buying power for our suppliers, we’ll do the best that we can, but I think it’s really up to the government to work on solutions that they can have.”