By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM, Aviation and Investments Minister Chester Cooper said the government is hoping the owners of British Colonial Hilton will be able to soon find a new management company to take over the property.

Mr Cooper made the comments to reporters yesterday when asked for an update on the hotel’s closure.

Last month, British Colonial Hilton announced its plans to “indefinitely” close from February 15, citing low occupancies and poor financial performance due mainly to the pandemic.

Some 130 staff are expected to be terminated as a result of the move. However, Mr Cooper said he believes the majority of those workers will be recalled to work once a new management company takes over.

“At the moment, the position remains the same,” the minister said before going to a Cabinet meeting. “The owners of the Hilton, CCA (China Construction America) are speaking actively with other potential brands and management companies. Some of them are well known to all of us and we will wait to see the outcome of these discussions.

“Suffice to say, it is the intention of CCA to close the hotel on February 15 as has been announced and at the same time, if they are able to secure a new management company swiftly, the closure period could be very short so we are hopeful that it works out that way and we will remain in touch with owners of the property as their partners.

“They are committed to The Bahamas. They are also owners of other hotel properties nearby and we continue to be in active dialogue with them.”

Asked about the future of Hilton employees yesterday, Mr Cooper replied: “It’s very likely that they will recall most or all of the employees when they reopen.

“They will still need properties to reopen so to really solve the issue, they need a manager, a brand and a network that they can draw on to get guests to come to their property and, of course, the jobs will be available for the qualified applicants.

“I won’t speak for them, but I am satisfied that they will recall some, or most of the employees should that outcome happen. We can’t speak to the potential time frame of this. This is clearly a private matter between the owners of the property and potential new brands so this is not something we have direct control over.”

As for the country’s tourism recovery, Mr Cooper said that visitor arrivals remain strong.

“The Caribbean still leads the rebound for the world and for the fourth quarter, we’re tracking slightly behind where we were pre-pandemic but suffice to say, our numbers are looking stronger moving forward,” he said.

“We continue to have five ships a day in the harbour in terms of cruise lines and this is comforting given the peril recently in the cruise industry, but we are seeing positive numbers. We’re hopeful that the CDC will re-look at the ratings very shortly. We’re seeing a significant drop in the number of new cases of COVID as you know and this is going to bode positively for our tourism rating in terms of CDC and the tourism bookings moving forward.”

Pleased with declining COVID infections, Mr Cooper also said the government has decided to keep its rapid antigen testing requirement for vaccinated people entering the country.

The government was expected to implement a mandatory RT-PCR testing policy for all travellers in early January in response to the nation’s fourth wave.

However, the requirement was suspended after visitors experienced challenges obtaining the tests due to supply shortages.

“There was some contemplation with respect to the PCR. That’s behind us. We recently gazetted the rules that confirm that we’re moving forward with the antigen test. This is desirable for travellers across the USA, in particular which is our major source market as the PCR tests are very difficult to find in some cities,” Mr Cooper said yesterday.