By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Baha Mar’s new owner will likely incur “horrendous losses at the outset” because of the global travel industry’s complete lack of confidence in its continually-moving opening dates, a former director said yesterday.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, who sat on the Baha Mar Board under former owner, Sarkis Izmirlian, told Tribune Business that no travel agent or tour operator would book guests to stay at the property until they were sure it was ready.

Mr D’Aguilar, now the FNM’s candidate for Freetown, said Rosewood’s announcement that its 200-room Baha Mar property will open only in Spring 2018 had only added to the confusion surrounding the multi-billion dollar development’s readiness.

“Clearly, nobody knows what’s going on with Baha Mar,” he told Tribune Business. “Nobody has a clue. They’ve set a date of April 21, but clearly that date is an election gimmick.

“We know that because they haven’t turned their reservation system on. They’re not confident they’re going to be ready, and that’s why Rosewood said it was going to delay opening until 2018.”

Mr D’Aguilar accused the Christie administration of “handicapping the success of this project by their premature statements” regarding when it would open under prospective new owner, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE).

He argued that the Government’s “desperation” to be able to say Baha Mar had opened, and justify its strategy to remove Mr Izmirlian, prior to the general election was only storing up problems with the project’s potential customer base.

“Perry Christie and the PLP are so determined to get this property open before the election so they can say they’ve delivered this project, and what’s becoming apparent is they will not have a product,” Mr D’Aguilar told Tribune Business.

“The purchaser’s brand, Rosewood, is not going to be open until 2018, and the travel agents and anybody looking at this, including international guests, have lost faith in them delivering this project at a certain date.

“It’s going to cost them [CTFE] a fortune. They’ll have to get it operational before anyone sends guests there; they’ll have a horrendous loss at the outset.”

Tribune Business revealed last week how Rosewood, the hotel brand owned by Baha Mar’s prospective purchaser, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE), had confirmed in a company press release that its Baha Mar property will not open until Spring 2018.

“Rosewood Hotels & Resorts has been appointed by the Bahamian subsidiary of Hong Kong-based development company, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE), to operate and manage Rosewood Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas, which will open in Spring 2018,” the resort brand’s opening statement said.

This indicates that Rosewood’s opening has been pushed back, as the Bahamas Business Outlook presentation in January by Graeme Davis, CTFE’s top Bahamas-based executive, showed both its hotel and the SLS Lux would be completed in time for Baha Mar’s ‘grand opening’ in November/December 2017. Travel news websites also previously cited this date for Rosewood’s opening.

Mr Davis and CTFE have yet to respond to detailed Tribune Business questions that were e-mailed to him five days ago, seeking answers on both the Rosewood opening and whether they have yet been granted a casino license for Baha Mar.

The constant changes in Baha Mar’s opening dates are also beginning to undermine confidence in the project among global travel agents, who are becoming increasingly reluctant to send clients there until there is complete certainty that the project’s construction is complete.

“My original thoughts on the Baha Mar opening were promising, but with yet another delay I’m not sure what to believe,” Kristen DeAngelo, of Dream Excapes, told Travel Agent magazine.

“At this point, I will believe it when I see the resort open and logistics running in order. The project has lost my interest as well as clients who have been interested. It is ruining future guests’ trust in the company, as well as the hope for the Bahamians and their economy with the opening date being pushed out further and further.”

And Alex Scipione, of Alex’s Adventures, told the same magazine: “The project has been full of empty promises that have yet to be delivered. After all of the events that have unfolded, I would be surprised if it does open next year.

“I think at this point it would take a lot more than they realise to rebrand and re-interest both agents and travellers in its potential.”

CTFE has previously said it will invest some $200 million in pre-opening activities, including marketing Baha Mar and recruiting the 4,000-plus staff it has promised to have in place by year-end 2017.

It is making this investment despite having yet to close the purchase, something that is tied directly to China Construction America’s (CCA) completion of Baha Mar’s physical construction. Only then will purchase price payment be completed, and CTFE become the new owner.

Mr D’Aguilar, meanwhile, suggested that the April 21 opening could involve as little as 100 rooms, so long as both the Government and CTFE could claim to have accomplished their goals.

“They’ll jump up and down, scream and shout and say they’ve done it, but we don’t know if they have a casino license yet,” he told Tribune Business. “They have no casino operator, no reservations system.

“They’re trying to spin that things are better than they are, but clearly they’re not. They’ll try and sully the previous Board and owner, and claim Mr Izmirlian’s responsible for this, but this is now their [the Government’s] project.

“They own this project. By supporting the end of Chapter 11, and going all in with the Chinese, they are now running into the same problems we had with CCA. Stick with the Chinese, see where that gets you. They’ll let you down again.”