By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Exuma taxi and water sports operators yesterday said they are hoping for increased business after it was revealed that the rebrand of Sandals Emerald Bay into a Beaches resort will begin shortly.

While taxis enjoyed contractual agreements with Sandals Emerald Bay, which allowed for the security of “the interest of both Sandals and the guests and as well as the Taxi Association and its members”, Robin Thompson, former president of Exuma Travel and Transportation, the subsidiary of the Taxi Association, said business with the couple’s resort was satisfactory.

With its transformation into a family-oriented Beaches resort, Mr Thompson is hoping for more business for taxi drivers on the island. “But now with Beaches, we don’t know what’s going to be the case,” he said. “It’s a different type of hotel. Beaches is family oriented. With Sandals, it’s couples.

“So there’s a fair chance that we can make a lot of money, or fair amount of money. And then there’s also chances that it could be so different. So we’re still up in the air as to what’s going to be the case, but we are negotiating in good faith that they will be better than what Sandals was.

“Beaches is a family resort and we welcome Beaches, because there is a great possibility that the numbers for Beaches would be greater than that for Sandals, which means there might be more business for us as an Association and, as well, the economy of Exuma. So we’re hopeful.”

Mr Thompson said annually Sandals brought in between $1.2m and $1.5m on average for Exuma’s taxi drivers per year, which was spread over staff, taxis and other bills. “We were averaging an intake from Sandals of $1.2m to $1.5m per year,” Mr Thompson said. “That’s the whole organisation.

“That money is dispersed in many different ways. Every driver gets his fair share in terms of their activity, or what they would have earned, what they would have done in terms of jobs, and the organisation has staff and, of course, it has outstanding bills.

“So, yes, it might appear to be a lot, but when you split that on an annual basis between staff, company bills, insurance and the like, and then over 30 drivers, that does not come out to be as much as it appears to be,” he added.

“Generally, the contract was specific to securing Sandals transfers back and forth from the airport to the hotel. That’s number one. The second thing is that it was contractual safety for Sandals guests not to be charged by a taxi driver but, rather, Sandals would take care of the charges that were necessary to the guests, and they would pay us bi-weekly the amount that is agreed in the contractual negotiations.

“So that was specific. And then also it provided some sense of security for the guests in terms of not being excessively overcharged, or having price gouging, or different prices by individual cab drivers who could be notorious for doing that,” Mr Thompson continued.

“So the security was having the contract would secure the interest of both Sandals and the guests, as well as the Taxi Association and its members, in accordance with what was the law, or what is the law when it comes to those types of businesses.”

Robert Thompson, principal of Robert’s Island Adventures also hopes Beaches will bring more business his way as only a small portion of Sandals’ guests used his services. Mr Thompson asserted that  was because Sandals had contracted its own water sports operators.

“It’s [Beaches] going to be great, because there’s going to be family instead of couples,” Robert Thompson said. “So it’ll be good for my business. Before they [Sandals] closed, I wasn’t getting much business out of them. I got a lot of my business from Grand Isle [Resort] and Airbnb’s.

“Sandals had a contract with their own company, outside company, and they get most of Sandals’ business. But I mean, it’s good for the taxi drivers and stuff like that. But like I say with the families, it should be enough for everybody.

“They probably will have a contract, but they’re going to be open to the outsiders, too. So it’ll be enough for everybody. We’ll get our fair share. I mean, like I said, I don’t depend on Sandals, but I always got, two or four, maybe six people, sometimes from them. Let’s put it like this, I can’t survive off of them, strictly them. But I do get people from them. They help fill the boat up.”