By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Hotel workers are being urged “don’t panic” amid fears that Donald Trump’s tariff policies will still spark a major tourism and economic slowdown despite the ‘90-day pause’ imposed by the US president.

Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union’s (BHCAWU) president, told Tribune Business that members are being advised to exercise prudence in their spending habits so that they have some savings to fall back on should any negative fall-out be felt during the 2025 second half.

With some workers said to have enjoyed “notable increases in their take home pay”, after the gratuity increases contained in the union’s latest industrial agreement started to take effect during the recent peak winter tourism season, he said the BHCAWU and its members are hoping The Bahamas will fare relatively well from a “double edged sword” effect if the worst-case Trump tariff scenario materialises.

Given that persons tend to stay closer to home during times of economic upheaval and uncertainty, Mr Woods told this newspaper he - along with the rest of the tourism industry - is hoping that The Bahamas’ proximity to its largest visitor source market in the US will help to minimise any negative impacts associated with a decline in demand for this country’s largest industry.

Mr Trump has temporarily halted the biggest tariff hikes, with the notable exception of China, on all other countries’ imports to the US until early July to see if they will seek free trade deals with his administration. This has delayed, but not yet eliminated, the negative consequences of the tariffs that have been predicted by many economists, and the uncertainty together with the impact on business and consumer confidence lingers.

Mr Woods, though, said union members and all hotel workers “for the most part fared very well” in terms of take-home pay and gratuities during the peak winter tourism season that ended with the recent holiday weekend. They, as well as their employers, benefited from an extended winter season that ended in late April this year as opposed to the earlier 2024 close when Easter fell at end-March.

“For the hospitality workers, the hotel workers, they enjoyed pretty much full weeks and enjoyed the fruits of some of the new gratuity structure. They fared pretty well,” the union president told Tribune Business. Mr Woods added that not all workers would have felt the new gratuity structure’s benefits, either in full or at all, because of how it was introduced under the new industrial agreement’s terms.

The old gratuity rate, formula and structure still applies to visitors who booked their Bahamas vacation prior to the new industrial agreement’s signing and member resorts, such as Atlantis, adjusting their guest pricing accordingly. This prevented already-booked guests from being hit with an unexpected increase in their vacation costs.

“It [the new gratuity structure] officially kicked-in in its totality on April 1 this year,” Mr Woods explained. “It was in specific spots. Persons who booked prior to the agreement were locked in at the earlier rate. The impact is really difficult to say. Right now, we have not actually done comparisons at this point in time.

“It’s something we want to do as a result of the new industrial agreement, and being able to say this is the value of it. But, based on what the workers are saying, they would have seen an increase in their take home pay on a week-on-week basis but we have to do the actual comparisons. We got some reports saying they were seeing a notable increase in their take home pay.

“I can’t say the exact percentage by what the gratuity was increased. For some areas, like the restaurants, we actually put in a sliding scale similar to when they travel abroad. We have varying scales. We were able to get this in and into other areas.”

Mr Woods, though, conceded that the ongoing global trade, economic and stock market turmoil is “a major concern” for the union, its members and all hotel workers because of the potentially damaging ramifications for global travel and tourism.

“There was also a good bump in Spring Break activity,” he added, “but we’re also heading into the summer and are saying to our people: ‘Be cautious, because after summer you have September, October and November, and a little lull.

“And, where there are tariff wars or any type of war, there’s always going to be a reciprocal or domino effect in that persons are not sure what’s happening so they tend to stay at home. What we’re hoping for is that, as opposed to the travelling public travelling far, they will come closer based on our proximity.

“We’re hoping it’s a double-edged sword. It cuts one way, and also cuts the other way, and then we become the beneficiaries of them coming this way as opposed to going somewhere else.” Mr Woods, though, said the union is warning its members to take nothing for granted in uncertain times.

He added that the BHCAWU has already received reports from one island outside New Providence that “some people have cancelled their flights” to the detriment of “a major property”. Although he did not identify the resort, it appeared to be Club Med on San Salvador, as a number of those flights were said to be from Europe and that property caters to the European market.

“For us, one is a concern. That’s one too many,” Mr Woods told Tribune Business. “We are saying to our people don’t panic, but be cautiously careful as to how you dispose of your income. Try to make cautious purchases. It’s pretty much a wait and see.

“We don’t know what’s happening, and don’t want to alarm anyone or push any panic buttons, but we want to prepare for the worst. If anything happens, you have some income that is already stored up.” Mr Woods, meanwhile, said he and the union plan to also “jump” on plans to develop affordable housing for members with “some government approvals already being worked on.

He added that the BHCAWU was targeting between 10-15 home sites, featuring a mixture of single and multi-family properties. “We’re trying to do a two-pronged approach,” Mr Woods disclosed. “We had some land left over from an earlier project. We ran into some challenges so we’re trying to do some other stuff to get sorted out in western New Providence; south-western New Providence.”

The increase in take-home pay has made it “a bit easier” for hotel workers to qualify for mortgages, he added, but many need to clean-up and address the multiple existing consumer loans they have outstanding.