By Staff Writer
November 10, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on all tourism dependent countries, The Bahamas is no different and perhaps has been hit the hardest. On November 1 the country reopened its borders to international travellers, but is the brand of The Bahamas completely tarnished now?
Adam Stewart, Sandals Resorts International’s chief executive, said in a webinar about the Sandals properties- the Royal Bahamian and Emerald Bay, Exuma- reopening considering that all of the other properties around the Caribbean have opened up, that the Bahamian properties have a tentative date of February 1 to reopen, which he said may change as more demand starts to build.
The Emerald Bay first had an opening date for before the Christmas holidays which many people were hoping for. But now, for it to be pushed back to February, 2021 is the fear everyone on the island of Exuma had realised.
Mr Stewart blamed the confusion over the country’s reopening strategy and constant herks and jerks over the curfews and lockdown policies as being a part of the decision to delay the opening. He said, “Right now we are looking based on the demand that we are seeing, I think the clearer that we are with the marketplace, overall as I mentioned before that one of the most complicated things that has happened for everyone and not just the government of The Bahamas has been what is the pathway? What will people need to do and what has evolved? Of course there has been a couple of lockdowns in The Bahamas due to spikes and the decisions that need to be made.”
“With each one of those lockdowns every action has an equal reaction, it’s created confusion in the marketplace and other countries like the Dominican Republic and Mexico have decided just to open their borders and they have gotten ahead.”
Mr Stewart then went on to say that the date targeted by his company would be February 1 for all Bahamian properties.
The government of The Bahamas has been handling the COVID-19 pandemic the best it can but things keep falling short. For example, in addition to the continual implementation of curfews and lockdowns since March, 2020 they have continually moved the goal post on when the opening date for the tourism sector would be, leaving people wonder if they would be safe in The Bahamas and is the country ready?
The government first had a date of October 15 for the reopening of all hotels and beaches for tourists as enunciated by minister for tourism, Dionisio D’Aguilar, back in early September, however, hotels balked at the opening date and pushed their individual opening dates back even further upon hearing the news and the continual news of the high spikes in the COVID-19 sweeping the country.
Baha Mar who had originally announced in June their plan to reopen on October 1, but has since pushed their opening date back to early 2021. The Atlantis Resort Paradise Island, had set their opening for early December and had started to take reservations for December 1.
Atlantis had said it would operate on a “Vacation in Place” (VIP) arrangement for guests looking to stay, a strategy promoted by the government as a quick solution to get visitors back to The Bahamas, but a strategy that was roundly rejected with Mr D’Aguilar saying that that VIP strategy has been scrapped in addition to the 14 day mandatory quarantine for all guests coming to the country.
In the meantime, the COVID-19 cases continue to go on unabated. Will this damage the reputation of vacationing in The Bahamas? Are major resorts on the bubble for bankruptcy during this time? Without question this is a huge concern for these properties that have been closed since March, 2020 when the emergency orders were first implemented.
The unfortunate thing about the emergency orders is that the government has extended the emergency orders until the end of November, which means that the competent authority- the prime minister- can impose any restrictions on any person or entity within the country without process up until that time. The country has been under emergency orders since March, which has not been a pleasant experience that has been voiced by many.
But The Bahamas is a tourist country and the closest non-land connected country to the United States of America, which has historically enjoyed visitors from their neighbour to the North. Without a doubt the US presidential election being now done, Americans will feel the need to travel again once everything settles down, a COVID-19 vaccine is in place or at least a safer protocol for travelling it implemented.