The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

The Government’s pre-holiday pledge that the new and increased boating fees will be reviewed was yesterday branded “a Christmas present” with marinas suffering during the festive period amid “good” hotel occupancies.

Molly McIntosh, general manager at the Bluff House in Abaco, said an update from the Government regarding the fees may come in time for the Palm Beach Boat show scheduled for March.

“We're hoping for some good news from the Ministry of Finance,” she said. “It might not be that soon. I know they just went back to work, but we're hoping to have some kind of… maybe a new concession on the boating fees and regulations.

“But we might not get that until the Palm Beach show, which is in March. It definitely has affected all of Abaco. Marina occupancy is down. I don't know anywhere in Abaco that is either the same or higher occupancy than this time last year.”

Lee Prosenjak, managing director of Valentine’s Resort and Marina, the largest in Briland with 51 slips, said captains and crews are boycotting The Bahamas with upset visitors encouraging others in Facebook groups to do the same. Noting that business for his marina was down during the holidays, he is grateful that the Government announced a review of the fees.

“The marina was still very down, of course,” he said. “It's been really slow since that new cruising permit went into effect on July 1. So [it was] a little bit of a Christmas present with the deputy prime minister's message on the 24th to say that they're now going to look at these fees. They didn't commit to doing anything, but at least it's something that's under review and clearly being noticed.”

While no timeline was provided on when operators would hear back from the Government regarding the fees, Mr Prosenjak said even if changes are made soon “there's still going to be a pretty long lead-out period.”

“So I'm not sure if we'll have an answer back from the deputy prime minister or not by that point, next week [for the Boat Show in Stuart, Florida],” he said. “I mean, it would be great if we did. But anything that happens, there's still going to be a pretty long lead out period.

“Even if it changes today, if you're planning a trip in February you've already planned that trip, or March or April or something like that. So this is really going to affect something like a May or June timeframe, when people are planning their next wave. 

“It's always going to be a couple months’ lead time if you've already booked. We heard this from lots of customers that came in, like July, for example. They said, 'If my trip wasn't already booked, I wouldn't have come. But I was already booked with hotels and flights and other things. And so we decided to just pay the extra and show up’,” Mr Prosenjak said,

“One person literally came in on July 1 and said: 'If I had come a day earlier, I would have saved myself two thirds of the price.' So, there's a bit of a long tail that goes with each one of these things. And so we're still going to be off this season. I mean, even if you change it today, it's not going to radically increase people showing up here tomorrow.”

Ms McIntosh reported having “a good Christmas” in terms of hotel occupancy, while Mr Prosenjak said his rooms were sold out “which is normal” for that period.

“The hotel was sold out over the week between Christmas or the day after Christmas, usually through the first [of November],” Mr Prosenjak said. “So that was normal, which is good, a little bit soft on both sides, like we're not sold out those other days, like the 23rd or things like that.”

Ms McIntosh added: “December is slow, except for that Christmas to New Year's time anyway. But we did have a wedding in December that brought our occupancy up some. And Christmas and New Year's, we were 75 percent occupied over that week from December 24 until about January 3.

“Of course, we'd like to see an increase. There's just not a lot of room for us. We're not that big. There's not a lot of room for a huge increase. But a lot of years we're 100 percent occupied over Christmas and New Years.”