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by The FREE
NATIONAL MOVEMENT
The Free National
Movement, during two terms in office, developed and
implemented investment-friendly policies and undertook
major infrastructural works throughout the country.
This not only
encouraged and facilitated the renovation and upgrade
of hotel properties, but also, very importantly,
supported the construction of new and additional
hotels and new and additional hotel rooms in New
Providence and Grand Bahama, and throughout the Family
Islands.
The new and/or
refurbished hotel rooms in the Family Islands ran the
gamut from small Bahamian-owned and operated hotels
and bone fishing lodges and guest houses in Mayaguana,
Acklins, Crooked Island, Long Island, Cat Island,
Andros, Abaco and Grand Bahama to mega resorts in
Grand Bahama, New Providence and Exuma.
The expansion of
our tourism plant led to the construction of medium
and large new resort properties, Our Lucaya, Pelican
Bay Resort and the Old Bahama Bay Resort in Grand
Bahama; The Bahama Beach Club at Treasure Cay and the
Abaco Beach Resort at Marsh Harbour in Abaco; The Four
Seasons at Emerald Bay and the February Point Resort
near George Town in Exuma; and in New Providence,
Atlantis at Paradise Island.
This expansion in
resort accommodations led to the construction of
upscale boutique resorts like Musha Cay and the
luxurious soon-to-be opened condominium resort
development, Grand Isle, both in the Exumas.
Development all
through the islands
Additionally, there
was the Kamalame Cay Resort and the eco-touristic
Tiamo in Andros, the reconstructed plush and upscale
Pink Sands Hotel in Harbour Island, the exotic and
tastefully expanded Cape Santa Maria Beach Resort at
Long Island, and the understated and expanded Bluff
House Club at Green Turtle Cay, Abaco.
During this period,
the old British Colonial Hotel was purchased and its
hundreds of rooms brought back into service. The same
thing happened with the purchase of the old and closed
Atlantis Hotel on West Bay Street now the Holiday Inn.
In early 2001, The
Bahamas was poised to enter into a new phase of
tourism development. Hotels, with few exceptions, were
operating profitably; hotel room revenues were up,
tourist expenditures were up, significant expansion
had taken place in the Bahamian hotel work force.
Higher wages,
full work weeks
Hotel workers were
enjoying higher, stable incomes and working full
weeks, investment inflows into the tourism sector were
buoyant, and government revenues were up. Importantly,
tourism expenditure increased by one-third -- $500
million, from $1.3 billion to $1.8 billion.
The FNM
administration made it a requirement for hotel
developers and operators to maximise the use of
Bahamian professionals, and skilled and unskilled
labour in the construction and operation of their
facilities, and promulgated and implemented policies
which encouraged local sourcing of materials and
supplies for the sector.
In that regard, the
FNM administration enacted new amendments to the
Hotels Encouragement Act, reducing concessions
available for renovations to existing hotels with a
view to improving, even further, the linkage of
tourism to other segments of the economy, such as the
light manufacturing sector.
And the FNM reduced
to five the number of hotel rooms qualifying for
concessions, and made available Crown land to
Bahamians to build small hotels and bone-fishing
lodges. Also, the FNM made provision for concessions
for time-share properties and Condominium Hotels.
$15 million loan
guarantee fund
Going even further,
the FNM created the $15 million Loan Guarantee Fund to
guarantee funding for Bahamians to build, own and
operate small hotel facilities in our Family Islands.
This Loan Guarantee
Programme permitted Bahamians to borrow from banking,
insurance and other approved institutions up to
$500,000 for the renovation or refurbishment of
existing hotels and/or the construction of new
marinas, restaurants and other amenities.
The FNM met roads
throughout our Family Islands in deplorable, pot-holed
condition. Roads had to be paved the length and
breadth of San Salvador, Mayaguana, Ragged Island,
Crooked Island, Acklins, Exuma and its Cays, Eleuthera,
Cat Island, most of Andros, Bimini, the Berries,
nearly all of Abaco and its Cays, and East Grand
Bahama.
Added to all that,
the FNM government had to electrify Rum Cay, Ragged
Island, Mayaguana, Acklins, Crooked Island, Long Cay,
Black Point, Farmers and Staniel Cays, most of Long
Island and Cat Island, and complete the
electrification of Abaco and East Grand Bahama.
2001 did not change
FNM's stride
While the events of
the Fall of 2001 disrupted The Bahamas' march forward
in tourism development and growth, these events did
not change the stride of the FNM Government to further
strengthen the tourism sector and to deepen local
involvement in the sector.
Bahamian hotel
inventory, however, so neglected up to 1992, could not
both recover lost ground and keep pace with room
expansion in newer and/or larger and cheaper resort
destinations in either the Caribbean or in North
America during the decade of the 90s.
Most of the new
hotel rooms added to The Bahamas' inventory since 1992
have been at the upper end of the scale -- four star
quality.
New hotel rooms at
Comfort Suites on Paradise Island, refurbished rooms
at the Crown Plaza and the Royal Oasis Hotels in
Freeport, at Breezes and Sandals, at Cable Beach
Hotel, Nassau Beach Hotel and Wyndham Nassau Resort
and Crystal Palace Hotel, at Sun Spree on Paradise
Island and at South Ocean Golf and Beach Resorts have
substantially upgraded the inventory of mid-range
hotel rooms.
Understanding
our limitations
However, our supply
of mid-priced hotel rooms is limited, particularly
when compared to what is available in Cuba, the
Dominican Republic, Mexico, Jamaica, and Barbados.
The Bahamas, a
high-end tourism destination is heavily dependent on
imports to support and service its tourism industry.
We cannot offer the
low cost tourism available in Cuba, the Dominican
Republic or Cancun, Mexico where low wages and cheaper
tourism components (food, construction and finishing
materials, souvenirs and public utilities) keep the
cost of tourism within the reach of large scale mid
and low-end clientele, particularly from Europe.
The Bahamas'
vacation experience cost compare favourably with
high-wage tourism destinations in North America, such
as Orlando and Las Vegas, where utility rates and
construction materials are relatively cheap, although
wages are high, but this comparable cost advantage
disappears when they are offset by higher labour
productivity, utility and other operational costs.
The FNM's
focused initiatives
In 2002, the FNM
was poised to consolidate the gains of the last decade
in Bahamian tourism, and to pursue focussed
initiatives to stimulate additional hotel room
construction, particularly in the mid-price range.
Plans by Kerzner
International to commence its next stage of its phased
development on Paradise Island were expected to serve,
once again, as the stimulus to further growth in the
tourism sector.
While the FNM did
not, and does not, believe that The Bahamas is able to
sustain unlimited expansion of its tourism sector
without adversely impacting its fragile environment,
the FNM believes that opportunities exist to create
important tourism-based employment centres outside of
New Providence on our Family Islands.
Spin-off jobs from
such developments in the Family Islands will stabilize
and encourage the growth of populations in the Family
Islands, as is now the case in Abaco, Exuma, San
Salvador and Harbour Island.
Further, Family
Islands tourism growth will provide the basis for the
development and expansion of other sectors of Family
Island economies -- in agriculture and fisheries,
souvenir production, and light manufacturing.
The FNM put in
infrastructure
At the time of the
May 2002 general elections, significant additional
infrastructural developments were in the pipeline and
funding was committed to facilitate further Family
Island development, such as:
& uuml;
Improved water supply for Inagua, Acklins, San
Salvador, Exuma, Long Island, Bimini and Abaco;
& uuml; The
installation of equipment to facilitate night flights
at selected Family Island airports (Abaco, Eleuthera
and Exuma) so as to facilitate later scheduling of
flights into those destinations;
& uuml; An
airstrip at Rum Cay and terminal buildings at Marsh
Harbour, Abaco and Moss Town, Exuma;
& uuml; The
lengthening and resurfacing of the North Eleuthera
airport; and
& uuml; The
completion of the restoration works required by
damages wrought by Hurricanes Floyd and Michelle.
Regrettably, much
of these works have been delayed by the PLP government
which deemed it appropriate, for example, to cancel an
awarded contract to construct a terminal building at
the Bight Airport in Cat Island, and to promise
re-bids on a host of other projects, including the
badly needed Marsh Harbour Airport Terminal -- the
bids for the construction of which having been
returned within days of the PLP coming to office.
The PLP Government
indecision on a number of projects has left any number
of developers at a lost as to how or when to proceed
with their investment projects.
This indecision on
the part of the PLP Government is but one of the
reasons why Kerzner's Third Phase development has not
yet started. Clearly stated, the new villas at the
Ocean Club, the expanded Time Share Project, and the
proposed construction of shops and restaurants around
Atlantis Marina are not Kerzner's Phase III project --
they are simply a delayed but continuation of Phase II
works agreed in the previous Heads of Agreement with
the FNM Government.
Phase III includes
the 1,000-plus hotel rooms and attractions, the start
of which has been delayed largely by the PLP
Government's culture of indecision, and which is now
likely to get underway only by this year's end, or
early next year.
The FNM has watched
with little bemusement as PLP ministers, led by the
Prime Minister, continue to preside over official
openings of tourism projects approved, planned and
developed on the FNM's watch.
They began with the
refurbished and upgraded Crown Plaza Resort, the
Pelican Bay Resort and the Casino at Our Lucaya in
Freeport and the Old Bahama Resort at West End; the
new Four seasons Resort at Emerald Bay; the new Port
at Marsh Harbour, Abaco; the expanded and enhanced
Emerald Palms and the new Tiamo Resort in South Andros.
There was also the
resumption of the Bimini Bay development along the
environmentally sustainable lines approved by the FNM
in 2001, and, most recently, the Montana development
in Rum Cay, for which Heads of Agreement were recently
signed.
Soon they will
preside over the new Grand Isle in Exuma, and the list
goes on and on . . .
The inability of
the PLP to bring significant, new investors to the
table and to close on new projects underscores the
reality that they ain't the party of jobs and economic
growth.
NEXT WEEK: Part III
"Tourism: The PLP Government's utter failure on
Cable Beach" and at the downtown Straw
Market"
"(Please visit
our website at freenationalmovement.org, or e-mail us
at fnm@coralwave.com)
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