Transport costs, shortages create tourism ‘headwinds’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

SHORTAGES of employee housing and certified fly fishing guides, and high ground transportation costs, were yesterday cited as some of the major “headwinds” impeding Family Island stopover tourism growth.

Kerry Fountain, the Bahamas Out Island Promotion Board’s (BOIPB) executive director, told Tribune Business that while same-day airlift connectivity from and to Nassau remains “the lowest hanging fruit” there are multiple other common challenges that must be addressed for these destinations to fully thrive.

“What we’re also noticing for islands like Abaco, and we’re definitely seeing due to the popularity of second home rentals, is a shortage of staff housing,” he explained. “The problem that then creates, if you cannot find the staff because you don’t have any affordable housing - and it’s not just Abaco, but Abaco comes to mind because of Dorian’s housing shortage - is that it creates service issues.

“That’s not in terms of rudeness, but in terms of slowness. You have too many visitors with too few staff members. That’s going to create slow service complaints, which is already among our top six complaints for all the Family Islands.” And that is not the only area where some Family Islands are running short.

“One of the things brought to my attention by a third-party foreign fishing tour operator is that the demand for fly fishing in The Bahamas has grown astronomically,” Mr Fountain added. “The problem is we don’t have enough certified fly fishing guides.

“I know the Ministry of Tourism and BAMSI (the Bahamas Agricultural and Marine Science

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Bahamas aiming to double Texas visitor share to 10%

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE BAHAMAS is seeking to double Texas’ share of its tourism customer base to 10 percent, the deputy prime minister has revealed, while revealing that the Houston Rockets basketball team will likely hold their training camp in Nassau.

Chester Cooper, also minister of tourism, investments and aviation, in a videotaped interview following his ministry’s promotional tour to Austin, Dallas and Houston voiced confidence that the growth in visitor numbers from the so-called ‘Lone Star’ state will outpace the forecast 20 percent increase in overall arrivals for 2023.

Detailing his team’s meeting with American Airlines, which is responsible for about 30 percent of The Bahamas international airlift capacity, he said: “This was a great opportunity for us to touch base with them and talk about their business; how well they are doing in terms of the load factors.

“We were assured that all of their flights, all of their routes, are doing exceptionally well. In one particular case, we were falling slightly below the 80 percent mark. We’ve agreed to work with them on some marketing

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THE BAHAMIAN international banking sector is still contracting because the “retreat” of European assets is “outpacing” new growth from Latin America, the Central Bank’s governor has affirmed.

John Rolle, in written replies to Tribune Business questions, acknowledged that the financial services industry has yet to regain momentum following two decades of scrutiny and regulatory pressures imposed by major world powers and fora such as the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) that act on their behalf.

“In the international sector, there has been continued reduction in the size of the aggregate balance sheet for multiple reasons but, chiefly, the reduction in business from Europe,” he said. “This retreat is still outpacing new areas of business growth from Latin America.

JOHN ROLLE

“In responding to the industry’s needs, the Central Bank has worked with industry and government to help introduce new regulated products such as private trust companies (PTCs) [and] executive entities, which allow financial institutions to use additional regulated vehicles to serve their client needs. The use of these vehicles has increased over the last decade.

“The retreat of the European business summarises the sector’s response to heightened scrutiny that international financial centres like The Bahamas have faced over at least two straight decades around

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