Atlantis has accepted just one-third, or 70, applications for voluntary redundancy by its middle management staff, the Government’s labour chief has confirmed.

Howard Thompson, the director of labour also voiced no concerns over the Paradise Island’s planned temporary closure of its Coral Towers complex from August 17 - a move that could last for up to eight weeks. He added that no staff redundancies or terminations are planned.

Describing the closure as a “yearly routine exercise”, Mr Thompson said: “My understanding is that this is a yearly routine exercise approaching the slow season. I understand that there will be no termination or downsizing, but that employees will be taking their usual vacation leave during the time.

“My understanding is that both the union and executives at Atlantis have been in constant communication with the company regarding this matter.” Mr Thompson also revealed that 70 managerial employees took voluntary separation packages after the resort offered them in response to employee demand.

“I am aware that top executives from Atlantis have been in communication with senior government officials weeks ago concerning this matter. I’ve been made to understand that a written communication was sent to the supervisory and management employees at Atlantis, inviting persons interested in accepting early retirement and or separation packages to communicate their interest,” the labour chief said.

“That communication was sent to both foreign and Bahamian supervisors at the resort. I am advised that over 200 employees expressed an interest in accepting the separation package. However, the resort only accepted 70 of those management employees. This number includes both Bahamian and foreign management workers.”

Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister and minister of tourism, investments and aviation, said Atlantis is “recalibrating” and conducting renovations. He voiced confidence that any issue will “correct itself”, and added that the temporary closure of the Coral Towers is similar to previous years.

“What we have seen is Atlantis recalibrating and using an opportunity to do some renovations. This is not unlike many years before, and we anticipate that, at the end of the day, we’ll have an even better product,” Mr Cooper said.

“We know that Atlantis has been a world’s favourite for quite some time, but we also know that it started to show its age. So I’m personally happy to see that this is happening and, over the course of time, I think it will correct itself.”

Mr Cooper said forward bookings are “recovering”, and both the 2025 second and third quarters are expected to be strong while the fourth quarter is expected to meet or exceed last year’s numbers.

“The numbers ahead continue to look strong. Future bookings are recovering versus what we saw in the first quarter. We expect the second and the third quarter to be strong, and the fourth quarter to be as strong as last year or better. So the future continues to look cautiously optimistic,” said Mr Cooper.

“As I laid out in our Budget presentation, tourism is not without its challenges. We know that geopolitical issues continue to confront us, and we must continue to preserve all of the guest experience that we can to ensure that they continue to come back and continue to allow our future bookings to continue to be preserved.”

Vaughn Roberts, the Atlantis executive vice-president of administration and strategic initiatives, in an e-mail response to Tribune Business inquiries confirmed the temporary closure although he provided few other details while suggesting it was consistent with actions taken in prior years during the slower part of the tourism calendar.

“Yes, the Coral Towers will temporarily close after August 17,” Mr Roberts said. “This is not unusual at all. For the past 20 years Atlantis has used this shoulder season to reduce some operations. This year, we will also finish some plumbing repairs which were suspended earlier due to high occupancies.”