D’Aguilar say RCI Beach Club project is good for Bahamians

By PAVEL BAILEY AND EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporters ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Minister of Tourism and Aviation Dionisio D’Aguilar said he supports Royal Caribbean International’s $110m Paradise Island Royal Beach Club project.

He spoke to The Tribune after Thursday’s Free National Movement Bamboo Town constituency association meeting.

RCI’s project, which has been approved subject to environmental evaluations, has attracted the ire of environmentalists and Atlantis executives.

Government officials say the deal is unique because Bahamians can invest in the project and hold equity up to 49 per cent.

Mr D’Aguilar said the deal is good for Bahamians, adding the Davis administration had time to build on the agreement the Minnis administration left behind.

“Any deal that empowers Bahamians I’m fully supportive of,” he said. “Any attempt to do so, we’re Bahamian first, FNM and PLP second, so let’s empower as many Bahamians as we can.

“Obviously we have to assess the environmental concerns. We have to see whether those pass the muster.”

RCI president Michael Bayley said Nassau ranks low on visitor satisfaction surveys, a point Mr D’Aguilar echoed in explaining why the Beach Club project could be beneficial.

“It’s not like (cruise ship arrivals are) staying at 3.6 million,” he said. “It’s supposed to grow to four million this year and four whatever million next year. So it’s not going to take away from any other business because we got more people coming.

“We’ve got to start to offer excursions and things for people to do that are new and different. Nassau is ranked three from the bottom right now in terms of interesting cruise ports to go to. Freeport is the worst and Nassau is three from the bottom because what new additional products are we bringing on stream for cruise passengers to do? So that’s why they rank it low.”

Atlantis’ persistent criticism of the project has surprised RCI executives.

Mr D’Aguilar said it’s the government’s job to mitigate the megaresort’s concerns if possible.

“I don’t have a problem with Ms Oswell’s point of view,” he said. “Obviously, she’s got a multibillion-dollar investment on Paradise Island and she’s got to protect that as best as possible. And if they feel that this project may somehow negatively impact their project, they have every right to voice that concern. And the government has to take that and those that make the assessments about the environment have to take that, digest it and see if there is any truth to it and see how you mitigate her concerns.”

“So I don’t have a problem with her voicing her concerns and I’m not going to comment on the methodology that she used because she has concerns. Let’s just focus on the big story, not how she communicated it but let’s focus on the message that she’s saying, look we have concerns about the environment.”

Mr D’Aguilar said he does not believe RCI’s project would impact Atlantis’ financial position.

“You always have to remember there are always more and more passengers coming into the port. There’s only so many passengers that Atlantis can deal with on a daily basis. So you got to create alternatives for these passengers to go to, not 28,500 people who come into the port can go over to Atlantis. It’s just impossible. They don’t want that many people. That would impact their guests who are paying good money to stay in their rooms. So they can only take so many every day. So, I don’t think that the Royal Caribbean deal will in any way impact Atlantis. That’s my view.”