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MONDAY, MAY 9, 2022
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$100m Exuma eco-resort to create 70 jobs By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net A NEW $100m resort in Exuma is set to create 70 permanent jobs in the world’s first eco-friendly resort. Victor Barrett, chief executive officer of Silent Resorts, the company behind Club Ki’ama Bahamas in Exuma, told Tribune Business he is “super excited” for the launch of this new $100m resort, which he says will be “a first” in the world in many respects. Club Ki’ama will be the world’s first equity club to offer ultra-sustainable solar residences and carbon neutral solar yachts along with a fully solar marina. “Obviously it’s an incredible, pristine location and that’s what we want. We want a very light touch on an island that has no concrete, no structures and we don’t want any diesel generators. So it was fantastic to find this island. The waters around there with the environment for snorkeling and diving is fantastic. Of course, we love getting people out on the water. So the fact that it’s a big sailing
THE CENTRAL BANK OF THE BAHAMAS
Tourism arrivals rise by a sixth By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net
ARTIST RENDERING OF CLUB KI’AMA destination is exciting to us, too,” Mr Barrett said. Club Ki’ama is located within the new Ki’ama Bahamas enclave on Elizabeth Island, minutes from Great Exuma, so getting to and from the island will be a challenge. But Mr Barrett said: “We just purchased, and it’s sitting in our marina right now, the world’s very first electric boat. It’s a 28ft boat and its called the Xshore
and it is all electric. We have the very first one in the Caribbean, so we’ll be taking people to the island back and forth all electric.” Mr Barrett also said: “This is about a $100m project because we have eight yachts and 16 villas, a beach club. Plus, we have four or five more luxury, six bedroom villas, which will
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Eleuthera businesses: Disney jobs welcome but worry over wages By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE Disney Lighthouse project would put Bahamians back in “slavery” if they keep wages low, a South Eleuthera business owner has claimed. Felita Adderley, owner of Adderley’s Landscaping and Plant Nursery, said: “As I see it, this will only profit the foreigners and it won’t profit the Bahamian people and the Eluetherans, because it is just like you’re back in slavery and they don’t want to pay you what you’re worth. If they are going to be doing anything up here they need to
look out for the Bahamian people and not just themselves because as it stands that’s how it’s always been.” Ms Addereley said “a lot of people quit” the construction phase of Disney’s Lighthouse Point project citing unfair work conditions and low wages and reckons it won’t be near the 300 jobs that Disney is promising post-construction for Bahamians and that the company would probably opt to bring in their own people to work. However, Christopher Cates, the Lumber Shed’s owner, struck a more positive note and told Tribune Business the additional jobs Disney will be bringing on
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CIBC signs up to global credit bureau By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net CIBC FirstCaribbean is now a member of the CRIF credit bureau in The Bahamas, a move it says will mean more accurate credit assessment. CRIF Information Services Bahamas (the Credit Bureau) was licensed in 2019 and started operations a year later. It is supervised by the Bahamas Central Bank and is an affiliate of CRIF, a global company specialising in credit bureau and business information,
JACQUI BEND outsourcing and processing services, and credit solutions, operating in Europe, America, Africa and Asia.
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THE Central Bank of The Bahamas said tourist arrivals grew by 17 percent in 2021, but are still a way off 2019 numbers. The bank in its Annual Report & Statement of Accounts, 2021 released last week, said tourism output began to recover once COVID-19 vaccination rates improved in key source markets - coupled with the lifting of
travel restrictions in those markets. The report also said: “According to data from the Ministry of Tourism, total tourist arrivals grew by 17.1 percent to 2.1m in 2021, following a sharp reduction by 75.2 percent in 2020. While, this represented just 29.0 percent of 2019 levels, air arrivals, indicative of high-yielding stopover tourism, increased more than two-fold to 886,629 arrivals, compared to 418,329 visitors a year earlier.
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