By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Deputy Prime Minister yesterday said plans to re-open Cable Beach's Melia Nassau Beach Hotel are being “favourably considered” by the Government and an announcement on the property's future will be made in due course.

Chester Cooper, also minister for tourism, investments and aviation, speaking ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting said that, apart from the Melia negotiations, downtown Nassau's British Colonial resort is also forecast to come back online this winter and the Government “looks forward to the opening".

Baha Mar’s owner, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (Bahamas), is also the proprietor for the still-closed, 694-room Melia Nassau Beach Resort. Graema Davis, Baha Mar's president, said in late April: “[There] are ongoing discussions with the Government on our Melia project next door. We look forward to hopefully announcing that very soon so stay tuned for our next report.”

The British Colonial, meanwhile, which is owned by The Pointe's developer, China Construction America (CCA), closed in February 2022 after its brand/management deal with the Hilton ended. More than 100 staff were made redundant and Nassau's total room inventory was reduced by 288 just when all capacity was needed to meet soaring post-COVID demand.

Mr Cooper added: “Tourism continues to grow, and continues to beat projections when compared to 2019, which is a record-setting year. Overall, we are about 30 percent ahead. We're going to comfortably hit the 8m arrivals mark this year as we forecasted we will do, all things being normal, barring no surprises. We're hoping for a quiet hurricane season. We expect that the trend is going to continue. We have great support from our airline partners.

“Bahamasair is also looking at new potential routes. We're looking at a route from perhaps Cleveland, Ohio or Nashville to Freeport, Grand Bahama. We're also looking at Florida to Georgetown, Exuma. We're looking at Tampa to Nassau. These have to be properly assessed and planned out by Bahamasair, but I can tell you that these are on the radar.”