The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Goldwynn resort’s developer says its condominiums are 95 percent sold with the property “hitting all of its targets” ahead of what is predicted to be a strong 2024.

Randy Hart, the Wynn Group’s vice-president, told Tribune Business: “We’re very confident that our business will be growing over the next year into 2024. We’re going to be rolling out groups, events, weddings and other distribution channels for the hospitality operations. So we expect to grow our occupancy significantly in 2024. We’re on track. The year’s rolling by and then, of course, we’re now getting ready to launch the second phase of the penthouses.”

That second phase will be built to the east of the existing Goodman’s Bay-based property on West Bay Street, and is scheduled to “start before the end of the year”. The Wynn Group is in the process of “finalising our game plan” for the construction of 35 residential penthouses covering some 12 storeys, Mr Hart added.

Don Adam, Goldwynn’s chief operating officer, said the resort is well ahead of where it was projected to be and is “off to a great start” after officially opening in February this year. All the property’s venues have been “increasing fairly consistently”, especially its restaurant and beach bar that are open for both guests and locals to enjoy.

Mr Adam said that Goldwynn will likely “see the same trends as everyone else” in the industry over the remainder of 2023 with a slowdown for September but “a very strong forecast for November and December”. That leads into the New Year with bookings into March and Spring Break 2024. “We see 100 percent occupancy days coming very soon,” Mr Adam added.

“We actually hit 100 percent occupancy less than six weeks after we opened in February off of the strength of The Bahamas’ brand in general. Obviously we are doing our own marketing, but the reality is it is kind of like a boulder, and it takes a little while for that to get rolling, and it takes a little while for your active reviews to populate on all the channels, and for your property to really have word of mouth and largely get known as a commodity to the island.

“We’re seeing at large the island is doing very well. Airlifts are increasing and, because everybody is doing very well and there is this ‘share the wealth’ attitude among the hotels, guests are being spread among all the hotels, so everybody’s busy.”

Mr Adam said “revenge tourism” is real and not slowing down any time soon with “all of the properties hitting it out of the park”.