The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government was yesterday said to be working with Club Med in a bid to ensure its San Salvador resort re-opens earlier than late 2022 and sparks “a 180-degree turn” in the island’s economy.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Philip Davis, in whose constituency the resort is located, confirmed that both the Government and Club Med are working together in efforts to get the property operational before the latter’s October 2022 forecast.

“It’s definitely on the table to get them to re-open earlier than October,” they said.

“There are things that both sides must do but they are working towards it.”

The spokesman added that a government team visited the Columbus Isle property to assess its condition, the situation as it exists on the ground today, and what part the Davis administration can play in facilitating re-opening.

Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union’s (BHCAWU) president, told Tribune Business that a recent conference call between the union and Club Med’s human resources officials had given him hope that a re-opening before October 2022 was possible.

“They’re maybe looking to open a little bit earlier,” he said. “I spoke to the human resources people from Club Med, and they indicated that some people were going to see the state of the place to make the necessary provisions for re-opening. I think they may have already gone to Columbus Isle to have a look at what’s going on.

“There’s no definitive date yet. It may be a little bit earlier than the original October-December 2022. I hope we’ll hear more from them [Club Med] in March once their meetings in Florida take place. If anything is to happen in the second or third quarter, the first quarter of the year is when all the wheels need to start in motion. We’re just waiting on a time now.”

Club Med terminated 190 staff, including 172 union members, in early January 2021 as it confirmed its decision to shutter the Columbus Isle property due to COVID-19’s devastating impact on global travel and tourism. No re-opening date was given at that time, and Club Med’s website still has October 2022 as the time when operations will resume.

The closure had a traumatic impact on San Salvador’s economy and wider community, as it provided the island’s major source of employment as well as spin-off entrepreneurial activities and jobs associated with those.

Asked what a re-opening would mean for San Salvador, Mr Woods told this newspaper: “It would be a 180-degree turn right away. That provides employment for at least 170 persons in the first instance, line employees excluding the management team. That will be full-time jobs. 

“Then there will be people able to pick up ancillary jobs, conduct tours and do the hair braiding and the massages. You’ll have a lot of spin-off jobs, and residents will pick up their lives. Persons will be able to get second jobs up there. That will turn the economy around 180 degrees.”

Mr Woods said he expected the majority of union members, who have not retired or found a job elsewhere, to return to Club Med’s Columbus Isle property once they are recalled. He added that when Club Med’s human resources team asked him what assistance they could obtain from the Government for the re-opening, he pointed out that it was the Prime Minister’s constituency.

“That is going to be high on the list of priorities for the Prime Minister because it is his constituency,” the union president said. “I told them they will not have to worry.”

Club Med, whose ultimate parent is Chinese conglomerate, Fosun International, cited several factors behind its decision to close the Columbus Isle resort during the COVID pandemic’s 2020 peak. First, it said the property’s remoteness and lack of healthcare infrastructure could endanger guests and staff if an outbreak occurred.

The San Salvador property also catered to a significant number of European guests, and outbound travel from that continent was heavily curtailed by lockdowns and border closures in 2020-2021, meaning that its customer base had largely dried up.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, former minister of tourism and aviation, in 2020 admitted that the Government had a “difficult mountain to climb” to persuade Club Med to re-open before 2022 due to San Salvador’s limited airlift and healthcare capacity.

“It’s devastating for the economy of San Salvador for it to be that long,” Mr D’Aguilar said of the potential two-year closure. “That’s a very special situation given the fact the whole property’s focus is on the European market. It’s a bit different. Most of our Family Island properties are very American-centric, and it’s so much easier and closer to come up with a ‘Plan B’.

“If you’re an American in the Out Islands it’s much easier to get home if you fall sick even though it has to be by private plane. Most people if they’re ill want to go back home, but if you’re coming from France and Italy, which is the greatest source of visitors to Club Med, it’s a long way away. You can’t put them on a commercial plane, and you can’t put them in our healthcare system as challenged as it is.”

He confirmed that the main fears behind Club Med’s decision were the inability of San Salvador’s healthcare facilities to cope with a major COVID-19 outbreak, which was “compounded with the lack of international airlift” given that the resort operated just one flight per week in and out of the island from France.

“That was not considered sufficient,” he added. “They’re working their way through all the resorts in terms of what are the safest locations to open, given that there are not sufficient healthcare facilities on the island, given that there was no robust trans-Atlantic or international airlift, it reached that point where it ranked low in all their resorts in terms of opening.

“There wasn’t much the Government of The Bahamas could have done in terms of removing those significant obstacles. They [Club Med] would wish for a scenario where COVID-19 is mitigated substantially, receded substantially or a vaccine is in place, would be my guess, before they go to a small remote location.”