"*we walked Bay Street, and it's still bustling. We see the cruise ship passengers. It's vibrant. The tours are ongoing, as was expected.”*

This is so tone deaf. The "visitors" havent been affected? They likely cant tell the difference between the damaged structures and the buildings still standing. Hopefully she expressed some concern for the 29 families whose lives have been turned upside down

Nothing will roll. I recall the director of labour biting his tongue to explain how the Hilton was nearing completion with almost 100% Chinese labour.

Thou shalt not touch the tourism investor.

"*They have the equivalent of 12 police cars, boats to patrol an area the size of California*"

ROTFL... not true... but not far off. Lol.

Ok, just looked up the article (I try not to click links).

My first comment was a response to the statement that we could benefit from reduced tariff related travel elsewhere.

My point was, it's not that simple and I referenced the cnn.com article where a spokesperson said if they had tariff related increases in the cost of planes they would pass that cost on to passengers. Your response referenced another article and you stated that this article pointed to cheaper prices. I extended that without reading the article to say, "**uncertainty**" was still the major risk because people hold on to money in uncertain times. Ironically exactly what Woods is advising our hotel workers to do.

In any event imagine my shock when the first statement in the article was:

"*a recession brewing in row 33? Airline CEOs this month warned Wall Street that passengers’ appetite for domestic trips is coming in lighter than they had hoped when they set forecasts high at the start of 2025.*"

Well... that's my point. It's not all roses, not only are people not travelling to the US, US citizens are reducing travel. That's a very bad indicator for us that cant be ignored

The article went on to say:

"*Delta, Southwest, Alaska Airlines and American Airlines pulled their 2025 financial outlooks this month, **saying the U.S. economy is too tough to predict right now.** United Airlines provided two outlooks, one if if the U.S. falls into a recession and said it expects to be profitable in either scenario*"

"*If uncertainty pops up, the first thing that goes away is corporate travel,” said Conor Cunningham a travel and transportation analyst at Melius Research*"

I'm not sure which tourism executive can ignore that reality

Respectfully your comment said "*that is not what they said*", I take what I say seriously. Since I knew what I read, and I knew that what I read directly referenced statements from an American Airlines representative, your "*that is not what they said*" response was not correct. It is precisely what they said.

I already pointed out that Trump's position was softening and that could change "some" dynamics. **However, uncertainty still remains**". 121,000 US citizens have unexpectedly lost their jjobs in the past 3 months, the persons still employed do not know if they will be next. Do you know what people do in uncertain times? They reduce spending. Especially discretionary spending. As pointed out in the article I referenced, the AA vice chair said, lower income citizens have reduced travel **already**. Guess which is the largest demographic frequenting the Bahamas?

Article was posted on.cnn.com "Corporate America is sounding the alarm on tariffs" Apr 25 2025

Either way you put it, higher prices due to tariff related equipment cost increase or less people traveling it does not result in a rosy tourism "*we can benefit from misery of others*" PR story. The one piece of good news is Trumps position appears to be softening, it may mean the "might" wont materialize

It's actually precisely what they said. Words do matter. I used "signaled" and "might". I did not say they said prices "would" increase. But **from this cnn article it's very clear they said "should" they experience tariff related cost increases in their planes, they "would" pass on the increase to consumers. The point is, the picture is not all rosy, people arent travelled to the US so theyll come here. The entire landscape needs to be examined**. The AA Vice chair also said lower income Americans are travelling less.

You can read it here from an article posted Apr 25 2025. That's this past Friday.

*Plane tickets and hotels
Tariffs and economic pressure are also hurting airline travel. American Airlines, Delta, Southwest and Alaska Air have all pulled their financial guidance for the year, citing **economic uncertainty**. American Airlines said it would pass off the cost of new planes to consumers.*

*American Airlines vice chair Steve Johnson told analysts Thursday that lower-income Americans in particular are flying less.*

“We believe it is mostly our most price-sensitive customers, for whom travel is most discretionary,” he said....*

"**American Airlines vice chair Steve Johnson told analysts Thursday that lower-income Americans in particular are flying less.**"

Defense Secretary Hesgeth hiring his two brothers and his wife as Defense Department employees *might* be an example of "*friends family and lovers*".

**But** if he promoted his wife, who is a "*woman*", a member of a group that has been historically marginalized, and purely "hypothetically" she were say a five star general who led troops in Iraq and Aghanistan but had been relegated to managing the copier room under Biden "*because that's a job for women*", to a senior position at Defense because irrespective of being female, she was qualified to do the job, that would be DEI.

**Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is not "*friends family and lovers*"**. The former actually seeks to ensure that marginalized persons **with qualifications and skills** are not overlooked because they are in or on the margins. Friends family and lovers on the other hand **is** nepotism and cronyism at its finest.