By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Grand Bahama-based restaurant and dining businesses yesterday said sales volumes have yet to rebound to pre-Hurricane Dorian levels some five years after the catastrophic storm struck.

Tony “Zips” Hanna, owner of Tony Macaroni’s Conch Experience on Taino Beach, confirmed that business has not fully recovered since the Category Five storm but voiced optimism that it will rebound to pre-Dorian levels in 2025 as some of the projects in Grand Bahama’s touted $2bn investment “pipeline” get underway.

“Honestly, since Dorian, things have been pretty bad,” Mr Hanna said. “But it looks like things will be good for the next year coming up, so hopefully things will get better. It all will depend on the investors, our government and the Grand Bahama Port Authority.”

Those investments include Carnival’s $600m Celebration Key cruise port; the infrastructure works associated with the Grand Bahama Shipyard’s $665m investment in two new docks; the $250m Six Senses project by Weller Development; the proposed Grand Bahama International Airport redevelopment; and the Royal Caribbean/MSC/ITM Group project for Freeport Harbour. 

Another restaurant that has operated in Grand Bahama for over 35 years, meanwhile, voiced frustrations with the state of the island’s tourism economy. Speaking to Tribune Business on condition of anonymity, its principal said the economy has progressively contracted since the passage of hurricanes Jeanne and Frances in 2004, then “tanked” after Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Every year since Frances and Jeanne it’s been going down,” she said. “Some years, things start to look up, like last year was the best year since 2019, but this year things are slowing down again.” They said the present condition of Grand Bahama’s economy was due in part to these natural disasters and ineffective leadership.

“All these things happen to Grand Bahama and nobody cares,” she said. “It’s not just the Port; the Government could have stepped in as well. They both could have done more to make sure the hotels and other businesses didn’t close. Even with the airlift, the reason there are so little flights is due to low demand, yes, but when there was still a high demand the airport wasn’t in a state to have them come in.”

Contrasting Grand Bahama with Abaco, which was also devastated by Hurricane Dorian, they said their restaurant and villa in Abaco has been doing exceptionally well. “Our restaurant in [North Abaco] has been doing good,” she said. “Business picked back up there last year and it hasn’t slowed down yet.

“Even our bookings are up, and it’s definitely a difference from what we see in Grand Bahama. Things have been slow these past months. I’ve had to put some staff on three or four days. My staff in Abaco are working five or six days, so things are going better there.”