07202020 BUSINESS

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business@tribunemedia.net

MONDAY, JULY 20, 2020

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‘Body blow’ for tourism restart By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

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HE tourism industry’s revival has suffered “a body blow” by the continued Atlantis and cruise industry uncertainty, a Cabinet minister has conceded, as commercial travel to the US was yesterday cut-off. Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business that The Bahamas’ efforts to restart its major industry had fallen “victim” to the inability of its largest visitor source market to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control. Acknowledging that this nation’s fate was “tied hook, line and sinker” to that of the US, which provides 82 percent of its tourist market, Mr D’Aguilar said Atlantis had simply decided it was “too risky” to re-open on July 30 given the ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases in Florida, Texas and other states that provide a

• Bahamas’ falls ‘victim’ to US COVID surge • Atlantis, cruise industry in further delays • Minister denies borders opened too soon

ATLANTIS PARADISE ISLAND significant percentage of its customer base. The Paradise Island mega resort on Friday opted for “an extended closure” until the health risks subsided, its move coming just days after the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) extended its ‘no sail’ order on the cruise line industry until September 30, 2020 (see other article

US travel shut down ‘low-risk proposition’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE government’s move to close The Bahamas’ borders to all commercial transportation from the US was yesterday branded “a lowrisk proposition” by the Chamber of Commerce’s chief executive. Jeffrey Beckles, pictured, told Tribune Business the decision to cut-off much of this nation’s largest tourist market was “painful but absolutely necessary” to prevent

Arawak Cay just 25% recovered pre-new closure By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

ARAWAK Cay vendors had only recovered 25 percent of their pre-COVID business volumes prior to yesterday’s decision by the prime minister to shut the popular Fish Fry destination

DIONISIO D’AGUILAR

the further explosion of COVID-19 cases in The Bahamas. He added that the timing of the prime minister’s action, less than three weeks after The Bahamas reopened its borders to international travel, will minimise any reputational and other fall-out given that it coincides with the slowest part of the tourism season. Arguing that Dr Hubert Minnis was right to place the nation’s health above the economy, with the former

SEE PAGE 5 a second time. Rodney Russell, the Arawak Cay Association’s president, told Tribune Business that restaurants and stall holders now need “a bigger bounce back” following Dr Hubert Minnis’ move to order another lock down until better social distancing measures and other COVID19 protocols can be enforced. “Some members were trying to keep staff working so they could keep food on their tables, but the government is bigger than us and they have the arbitrary power,” Mr Russell said. “We have to comply otherwise we will be fined and arrested, and people will say the business people at Arawak Cay are greedy.

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on Page 1B). The final blow to any lingering hopes of a swift tourism recovery was dealt yesterday evening when the prime minister announced the suspension of all commercial flights and passenger vessels between The Bahamas and US, with effect from Wednesday, July 22, in a bid to contain the renewed

COVID-19 outbreak on New Providence and Grand Bahama. “Once again we are a victim of the events that are unfolding in our number one market, which is the US,” Mr D’Aguilar told Tribune Business. “That is not lending itself to further expanding the opening of the tourism sector in The Bahamas given our economic dependency on the US for our foreign visitors. “We continue to be a victim of what is happening in the US, and our major hotels that rely on that market are unfortunately being impacted by that. Our fate is tied to what happens in the US, and until that gets sorted our largest hotel properties are so concerned they don’t want to risk

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Bay Street sees 80% income loss extended longer By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

EIGHTY percent of the spending that kept Bay Street afloat has dried up via a cruise industry shutdown just extended to October 1, the Downtown Nassau Partnership’s (DNP) cochair has revealed. Charles Klonaris told Tribune Business he does not foresee the sector’s return much before November’s Thanksgiving holiday at earliest after US health watchdogs pushed their ‘no sail’ order out a further two-and-a-half months. Speaking after the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) move, Mr Klonaris predicted that some merchants will fall “victim” to downtown Nassau’s protracted shutdown of at least sixand-months and “be unable to survive”. And he warned that many of those who did reopen were likely to do so with much-reduced staffing levels, as they aligned costs

CHARLES KLONARIS with shrivelled revenue streams and/or found they could sustain their operations with fewer workers. “It’s gone way beyond what most people anticipated,” Mr Klonaris told this newspaper of the COVID-19 pandemic, “and for the city of Nassau I would say tourists generate 80 percent of consumer spending. “It’s going to be a very difficult time in how people cope between now and November. It’s a very difficult and serious situation. I don’t think anyone has an answer in terms of having

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