By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Grand Bahama’s tourism industry is focused on “trying to keep the lights on” amid the protracted wait for a game changer that will revive the destination, a well-known hotelier said yesterday,

Magnus Alnebeck, Pelican Bay’s general manager, told Tribune Business it will remain “really tough” for the island’s tourism businesses until the fate of ITM Group/Royal Caribbean’s bid to acquire the Grand Lucayan and redevelop Freeport Harbour is resolved.

“In Grand Bahama we have very little airlift and the tourists we have are few and far between,” he said. “There isn’t that much happening to drive demand for the destination. We get these people coming who we consider to be tourists, but when you ask them what made them come to Grand Bahama, they say: ‘Mr grandmother or aunt has a house here, and I want to stay in a hotel rather than with them.

“It’s tourists who come for a particular reason. Let’s put it this way. It is really tough here. Until something happens that starts to drive demand for the destination, there’s very little that’s going to happen. I see very little going on with the Grand Lucayan, and until that situation is resolved it’s going to be to try and keep the lights on.”

Pelican Bay has traditionally fared better due to its corporate market, featuring business travellers and persons on work permits at the likes of the Grand Bahama Shipyard. However, Mr Alnebeck said this segment was difficult to forecast.

“It’s a lot of peaks and valleys,” he explained. “It’s not an easy business to forecast. Some businesses need a lot of rooms some weeks, and the next week need no rooms. That’s often with very little notice.”

And, with many expatriate workers set to head back to their home countries for Christmas, the Pelican Bay chief said the resort will be “happy” with a 15 percent average occupancy rate over the 10-day Christmas/New Year period.

“We’ve had two Christmases after Dorian, and the first Christmas in 2019 was really, really slow; one of the slowest ever here when people associated with the Dorian clean-up and rebuilding left to go home for Christmas,” Mr Alnebeck recalled. 

“Last year was extremely slow as well. This year, basically from next week, will be very slow at Pelican Bay but that is kind of what we expect...... For the Christmas and New Year period, if we hit 15 percent occupancy we will be extremely happy. We’ll be happy if we hit that over those ten days.”

However, he added that Grand Bahama International Airport’s passenger experience had improved significantly since being acquired by the Government from Hutchison Whampoa. “We have a better airport now than we’ve had for the last five years,” Mr Alnebeck said.

“You can now get a bottle of water and sandwich after you go through security. For years you were not able to get that. There’s been an improvement in the product, no question about that. It will be nice to have pre-clearance back and more flights back. Then we will have a problem because of space in the temporary terminal, but that’s a good problem to have.”

Mr Alnebeck said Pelican Bay, which has 80 staff, has brought back all workers who want to return. He bemoaned, though, the difficulty in finding good quality staff given that many have left Grand Bahama in search of work elsewhere. “People that are driven and want to do better have already left,” he said. “It’s difficult to find good staff.”