The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Tourism operators yesterday voiced mixed opinions over the $200m Rosewood Exuma project, with one asserting that he is “totally against” the development.

Ray Lightbourn, principal of Exuma Water Sports, told Tribune Business: “I'm totally against it. For one, it is a big environmental problem. Number two, the tourists they bring there, no one's going to get anything from there, no taxi drivers getting anything. They're going to be just ferried right to there.

“All these hotels, they get their own ferries. They're doing it all in Exuma now, and nobody seems to do anything. The money that comes there is not even going to come into The Bahamas. That's all pre-paid in the States before it even gets here. There's no benefit for any Exumians - a couple little cleaning jobs maybe, but that's about it.”

Another Exuma tour operator, speaking on condition of anonymity, concurred, stating they “don’t think they should even be there”. They both noted that the Exuma cays are “special” in that they are beautiful and, to an extent, remote destinations. 

“The cays are special man, and they’re only going to go down there and dig up the sea ground and destroy it,” the boat tour operator said. “They should not even be there. 

“The affect on it [environment] will be terrible. They shouldn’t fool with none of those cays. What they're doing is they're buying these cays up and breaking up the land, and not even putting anything on it.

“I mean, there’s no big hotel in the Exuma cays now. And the reason is the Exuma cays are one of the last places in the world that are still ultra beautiful, and are still somewhat remote. It's not that remote any more, because you get so many boats in there, but it is somewhat remote in that we don't have a big resort,” the operator added.

“Soon as you have one big resort, then it's going to be a next one, then the next one, then the next one. And then, you don’t even realise, it’s like Cabbage Beach. You can't even go to Cabbage Beach any more because all the hotels there. And that's how it’s going to be in the cays. 

“It's just ridiculous for Exuma. It shouldn't happen. It's going to ruin Exuma. You're going to have all of them start building big hotels now. Even Sandals [Resort], they had a tiny little resort, Fowl Cay. They still got it but it’s just a few homes. It's not any giant resort. People come to Exuma for the remoteness, not to see a bunch of hotels. If they wanted to see that, they'll just go to Florida Cays or Miami Beach or whatever. This the only place left in the world like that.”

With the Department of Physical Planning harbouring “significant concerns” over the planned location of the project’s service dock, and asserting that its relocation “is considered essential to ensure environmentally responsible, resilient and sustainable development”, Mr Lightbourn said the Rosewood Exuma development will not be easy on the environment. R

But Robin Thompson, a taxi driver who operates on mainland Exuma, argued that the project may not negatively impact the environment “no more than any other.”

“It wouldn't have any negative impact unless there's absolute carelessness on the behalf of the developer, and which case I don't see that happening,” he added. “We have good engineers, good marine specialists in our country who will oversee any work of that magnitude. And with that being in place, we don't have to worry about the marine life being affected in a tremendous way.”

However, Mr Lightbourn said the project will bring barely any economic value to the entire Exuma chain, arguing that tourists travelling to Sampson Cay will most likely land in Staniel Cay and take a ferry to their final destination.

“They generally land in Staniel Cay and then you just catch a boat over there,” he said. “I mean, it's literally a six-minute boat ride. And they're not going to have any Bahamians do it. They do it themselves because they get a really nice, expensive ferry…”

Mr Thompson, though, believes the project may create some “far reaching business opportunities” if guests travel through an airport on mainland Exuma or use tour boats to get to East Sampson Cay. However, he added that taxis probably won’t benefit “in any major way.”

“There might be some far-reaching business opportunities, like possibly some guests might flow through our airport and would have to take tour boats or private tours to Sampson Cay, and that will benefit some of our economy. But essentially, you know, most of those persons should be moved through Black Point and Staniel Cay,” he added.

“So there would be some benefit to the mainland as well, but not nearly as much as would be down in the cays. And then, dependent upon how big that development is, some of the workers from the mainland might venture to go and work down there on Sampson Cay. So that also could be a spin-off effect towards the economic buy for mainlanders. So it would be beneficial.”