By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Family Island marinas say they are in “limbo” due to ongoing uncertainty over the new and increased boating fees that took effect on July 1 and the often-hostile market reaction.

The Bluff House Resort and Marina has seen two cancellations due to the changes, according to Molly McIntosh, the resort’s proprietor. She said one of the cancellations was for the July 4 US independence holiday weekend, which is normally a peak period in the summer boating season for Bahamian resorts and marinas. The other was a booking set for August.

Ms McIntosh added that while the Abaco-based resort and maria was booming, as she “can barely manage the business”, she believes the true consequences of the increased fees will reveal themselves when it comes to attracting new business. She is hopeful that repeat guests will eventually come around and accept the new fees.

“We’ve lost a couple reservations,” Ms McIntosh said. “It hasn’t had a huge effect, although there’s a lot of negative talk about it. But I haven’t actually lost very much revenue so far. The biggest worry for us, probably, is new business.

“It’s kind of given The Bahamas a bad name, and might discourage some people from coming. People that have been coming, they might get mad, but I think eventually, though... I mean, everything’s going up everywhere across the world, so they have to expect our fees to increase.

“People are mad about the way it was done. You know, you hear about it a week in advance and people over here have already done cruising permits and probably should have had a little more lead time, a little more information,” she added.

“But the Government, I think they’ve amended a couple things to make it a little better, like changing where they have to have that automated identification system (AIS) on their boat. I think that now is 50 feet and above where it used to be 35 and above. It’s just it makes people angry, and I’m just hoping that it doesn’t hurt the business for next year.”

Lee Prosenjak, Valentine’s Resort and Marina’s managing director, said as of Friday the Briland-based property had seen four cancellations. “One was a boat issue. One did cancel and didn’t give me a reason why. Another one was a duplicate. I convinced them to stay longer, so that part was good,” he said.

“We did have a few cancellations but, again, it’s hard to tell what’s from that [fees] and what’s from other things. I know I had two at least that were boat engine issues and stuff. One said ‘I got to go back to Florida instead today’. So, last minute stuff always happens. So having a higher occupancy rate means that there’s more chance of that happening for somebody.

“I think, really, the biggest is yet to come, and it’s probably not for some of these immediate reservations in our mind, anyway. I know that the resorts and marinas in Bimini are feeling differently. But I think it’s going to be a next season thing where people are like, ‘Well, where are we going to plan to go?’ It’s probably not going to be here, unfortunately.

“By November, December, when people are like, ‘Where are we going to go in the next boating season...’ that’s a typical boating season for everybody in Florida. South-east US starts really around Thanksgiving and that’s kind of the kick-off,” Mr Prosenjak added.

“So, they’re planning in between August and November for where they’re going to go in the next year. And that’s when we do the boat shows like Fort Lauderdale Boat Show. That’ll be very telling when we see the interest at Fort Lauderdale, which is November 1. So that’ll be our next big way point where we can say our reservations are down big time, or they’re normal.”

Bimini Big Game Club Resort and Marina had seen six cancellations as of Thursday with its operator, Stephen Kappeler, adding: “We are down 50 percent in slips over last year for the holiday weekend.”

Romora Bay Resort and Marina in Harbour Island had suffered two cancellations with one as far out as July 10. Jill Smith, owner and operator of Stella Maris Resort Club and Marina in Long Island, said the fee changes have not impacted the business because they are “too far south” for many boaters. She added that she is “sure they will affect us next season”.

“It has not impacted us,” Ms Smith said. “We’re too far south. We don’t generally have that many boating bookings for July 4 anyway because we’re too far south. Most boaters head back north because it’s in the hurricane season.

“So the new fees have not affected us as such for right now. I’m sure they will affect us next season, but it’s very late in the season. Like I said, we’re too far south. Most boaters don’t come as far as Long Island right now for the July 4 holiday, anyhow.”

Jackie Callender, Briland Club’s marina manager, said the facility has not experienced any serious impact from the boating fee reforms. She added that the resort has not received any word from Customs or the Ministry of Tourism and, upon checking the portals, “nothing has changed”. She said “the fee is still the same”.

“It hasn’t really taken any effect for us, because most of our vessels are private yachts,” Ms Callender said, “For them coming in, it mainly provides the service for those vessels that are charter yachts that seem to be the issue. But nothing so far. We haven’t gotten anything from Customs, a memo of rate changes or nothing, only from what we’ve been getting online.

“We had a few guests, and what they’ve seen is the same thing we’ve been seeing online, but nothing came to us, specifically, from Customs or Ministry of Tourism. No one has reached out to us. We haven’t heard from anyone as yet, so we’re still waiting to find out what are the changes. No portals, nothing has changed. I looked on Click2Clear. Nothing has changed. Everything’s still the same.

“So we’re still waiting to get information from tourism, which does all of that, or Customs. And Customs said to me that they haven’t gotten anything here in Harbour Island. So we’re still in limbo. So we’re still going with the same thing with Customs clearing the boats. The fee is still the same. So no one has made no changes. So I don’t know what the Government’s doing.”

Ms McIntosh at the Bluff House added: “We just wish that we had a little more information. That’s the other thing. I did hear, and this is second-hand, but I heard that some of the Customs and Immigration, they didn’t have all the facts on it yet, and weren’t really prepared when the boats did check in.

“But I’m sure that’ll come around. I just think it was done a little too fast. But people have to understand, fees are going up all over the world for everything. So I think we needed an increase, just not quite as much. If it maybe could have been a little more incremental, you know, maybe a little bit this year, a little bit next year. It would have been easier to swallow and easier to explain if they did it a little bit at a time.”

Therese Turner-Jones, a Bahamian economist, speaking about the national budget at the ‘Be Clear Bahamas’ webinar, said the boating fees controversy highlighted the need for transparency and consultation

“In today’s newspaper, there’s a lot of comments about the taxation of the marinas and what that has done to the private yachting business, which mostly affects our Family Island communities,” Ms Turner-Jones said.

“And there was a lot of discussion. A lot was shared by the writer that talked about not having consultation with the marine community to say ‘Alright, these new taxes are coming, these new fees are coming in.’ I think in some cases, the fees increased by 100 percent. And we think that The Bahamas may be the only place someone wants to dock their yachts, but we’re not.

“There are other places they can go, and they’re choosing to do that. So the impact of that 100 percent increase, or the fee, may not have been anticipated, or the research that went into why we should increase the fees by 100 percent may not have been done thoroughly.

“And here is, again, why it’s important for us to be engaged, because if you’re going to do that, have a conversation with me,” Ms Turner-Jones added. “As the community that will be the recipient of these higher costs, you want to talk about that first. So I think there are some ways in which, if it’s not done properly, the Budget can come to bite us in places we don’t want because we haven’t done enough work or we haven’t had enough consultation with communities who may be on the receiving end of higher fees or the increased taxes or whatever.

“But people pay attention, and because business margins ... alright we’re starting to come out of our post-COVID boom as an economy, but things are still not quite where it ought to be, and our growth rate is not particularly fast. So anything less than 3 percent is not a great growth rate, and we’re under 2 percent per year. So I think we need to be careful and that’s where the consultation, I think, is really important.”