By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A major Paradise Island hotel plans to transport guests by boat to downtown Nassau twice a day to give them a "new experience", its general manager has revealed.

Benjamin Davis, the Warwick hotel's senior executive, told Tribune Business: "We plan to take our guests on a daily basis, with some rotations, from our dock outside directly into Nassau to give our guests an experience that they can shop in Nassau.

"We are going to be rolling that out very shortly, twice moving in the morning and twice returning in the afternoon. So that would give not only persons downtown some more guests to handle, but it would also give our guests a new experience by boat into Nassau."

Mr Davis said the peak 2020 winter tourist season was looking "not too bad, but a bit slow" for Warwick. He added: "We're seeing a fairly steady growth and pick-up over the next couple of months. So we are seeing sort of a slow start, but a very sort of brisk finish. So hopefully this continues for the first quarter of 2020.

"Within the first ten days of January we've seen some strong bookings for February and March, and April is picking up as well. All late and it is coming in from all parts of our travel partners."

Mr Davis confirmed that most guests still come from the US, "mainly between Atlanta and Philadelphia and north up to Boston". Asked why these areas remain the property's main market, he said: "I think there are a lot of factors taking place.

"Firstly, what's happening between Europe and the Middle East. I think people are wanting to stay at home and closer to the Caribbean, and two, property fares are good for the time being and hotels are pricing themselves quite competitively. Three, I think what's happening in Puerto Rico, unfortunately they had that earthquake, and people who were going to Puerto Rico are probably looking for other destinations."

Mr Davis said The Bahamas was also seeing less benefit from the impact hurricanes Irma and Maria had on other Caribbean destinations in 2017, as resort properties in those countries re-open and get back to full strength.

"We felt that 2020 is not as strong as 2019. So we know that Puerto Rico got affected in 2018, and some parts of the Caribbean and we saw some strong bookings in 2019, but that is not working the same way, which it did at that time," he added.

"We already know we are in a very competitive state. We know that there are a lot of new hotels in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Mexico and other Caribbean destinations. But I think The Bahamas is a really, really unique destination. We have a lot of islands, we have a lot of great experiences, and a lot of great staff."