By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Minister of Tourism yesterday said his priority is to avoid any “devastating cannibalisation” impact from Baha Mar’s full opening on other New Providence resorts.

Dionisio D’Aguilar told Tribune Business this was a greater concern than generating the extra 314,000 airline seats per annum that are needed to fill Baha Mar’s net 2,300-room increase.

“I’m not particularly worried about that,” he said of the airlift issue. “The thing I’m worried about is I don’t want there to be cannibalisation of the tourism product.

“I don’t want them [Baha Mar] to increase occupancies at the expense of another property’s deteriorating occupancy. It’s very important that the marketing programme increase overall visitors to the country. We don’t want the same number to be here and going to different properties. That doesn’t help the country.”

Fears that Baha Mar may split, rather than grow, the market for high-end visitors with Atlantis have been present ever since the $4.2 billion Cable Beach development was conceived in 2003-2005. Paul O’Neill, Atlantis’s former top executive, publicly voiced such concerns during that period at a Bahamas Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

Should these fears come to pass, it would create downward pressure on room rates at both New Providence’s mega resorts and, potentially other hotel properties, with none generating the profits they need to keep Bahamians employed and maintain a sustainable business model.

Mr D’Aguilar said that it was for this reason he had already met with Atlantis and the Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board, as well as Baha Mar, in a bid to ensure all stakeholders worked together to grow the Bahamas’ stopover visitor market.

“I’m very mindful that a co-operative marketing programme is put in place to help the occupancies at Baha Mar and all other hotels,” he told Tribune Business. “There will be some cannibalisation, but it can’t be totally devastating.”

He added that individual resorts also needed to do their bit with their own marketing programmes, saying: “Those companies have to spend the necessary marketing dollars to attract visitors and ensure the destination as a whole benefits from Baha Mar.

“We don’t want one property to benefit at the expense of another. We are putting programmes in place to ensure that does not happen. We want to make sure everyone has the particular segment of the market they are targeting, and they attract new, additional visitors to the destination to ensure the country as a whole benefits.”

Mr D’Aguilar said he planned to “empower” the Ministry of Tourism’s staff to “do what they know best”, and design new and innovative ways to increase both visitor arrivals and spend.

“There was probably a lot of interference and a lot of meddling,” he told Tribune Business. “The biggest mistake one could make is to plop down and profess you have the solution to everything. That’s the biggest complaint levelled against all ministers. The day before the election they’re a candidate, and the day after they’re an expert.

“I plan to engage all the stakeholders and figure out what is the best approach. The Government is challenged with dollars because of the mismanagement of the economy by the PLP, so whatever we spend we have to spend wisely.”

Mr D’Aguilar said the Ministry of Tourism was currently reviewing and questioning all that it is doing, to ensure programmes “make sense” and delivered increased visitor numbers and spending.

He acknowledged that many of the major sporting events attracted to the Bahamas under the former administration were “questionable” in terms of the economic and financial benefits generated, and were being assessed.

Rather than seek ‘big name’ sports events and celebrities, Mr D’Aguilar suggested the Bahamas might be better served by targeting family-oriented occasions such as college and high school tournaments. These, he added, attracted more family members and, from the perspective of tourism economics, increased visitors and per capita spend.

The Minister added that the Bahamas also needed to improve the experience for cruise ship passengers disembarking at Prince George’s Wharf, and ensure the Bahamas was promoted beyond Nassau and Freeport to give prominence to the Family Islands.