business@tribunemedia.net
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2021
$5.40
$5.45
$5.34
$5.26
6,000 back to work at Atlantis By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net
• Resort booked to capacity through to next year • Thanksgiving, Battle for Atlantis brings in 7,000 guests
ATLANTIS Paradise Island has 6,000 staff members back to work for the holidays as the resort is reporting full occupancy well into the New Year. Audrey Oswell, president of Atlantis, told Tribune Business yesterday the resort will be booked to capacity straight into early next year as the resort’s promotional events are having a lot to do with this. Ms Oswell said: “We are all set for the holidays and business is doing very well. We’re happy to report that we’re on full occupancy and we have been for about two weeks now, and looking forward to Christmas and New Year’s we will be full straight through to the beginning of next year.”
SEE PAGE 4
ATLANTIS RESORT
BREA president taking NAD meets passenger arivals projections stand against foreign realtor companies By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net
• Wants MoU with international real estate associations • Warns BREA members foreign co-brokering unlawful By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Real Estate Association’s (BREA) president yesterday said she wants “law and order” in this country and made a stand on co-brokering with foreign agents as she justifies the need for BREA to have Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with foreign real estate associations. Christine Wallace-Whitefield told Tribune Business that under no circumstance is there to be any co-brokering with any foreign agent or foreign real estate company with any Bahamian real estate company. She said: “BREA members should be reminded that co-brokerage with a foreign agent is not permitted under law and not permitted under the Bilateral Agreement – real estate business must be conducted by a BREA licensed agent and foreign agents are paid only a referral fee for referring the business.” The Real Estate Act, Brokers and Salesman Act 1995, states that any person
CHRISTINE WALLACE-WHITEFIELD practising real estate business on behalf of a third party is to be duly licensed under the Act. With the Bilateral Agreement with the National Association of Realtors (NAR), foreign agents are only allowed to refer their business to a licensed BREA Broker or Salesman and in doing so receive payment of a referral fee up to 25 percent. The NAR Bilateral Agreement basically indicates that when wanting to undertake real estate business in a foreign country like the Bahamas, the agent must
SEE PAGE 3
SIR Lynden Pindling International Airport met its projected 6,000 passenger arrival for this past weekend and expects this to maintain this volume throughout the remainder of the holiday season, a top executive at the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) said yesterday. Jan Knowles, vice president of marketing and communications, told Tribune Business yesterday: “We were pleased with how operations went over the weekend. The airport community worked closely together to successfully welcome thousands of arriving passengers this weekend given preliminary passenger numbers on Saturday, December 18, and Sunday, December 19. Like other airports around the world, LPIA is experiencing heavier traffic due to the traditionally busy holiday season.” NAD was expected to handle over 6,000 passengers this past weekend, a mark that has not been met in many months, Ms Knowles said, but she is happy to note that while there were
LYDEN PINDLING INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT some cancellations it remained in the 6,000 passenger range as the LPIA was “the busiest it has been in quite some time”. Ms Knowles added: “The airport community managed the many schedule changes over the weekend to smoothly accommodate all arriving and departing flights. Stakeholders like Nassau Flight Services, Airport Authority, Bahamas Customs and Bahamas Immigration, USCPB (US Custom and Border Protection) and Air Traffic Control
played a pivotal role in ensuring airport operations were successful. “We anticipate travel will be busy throughout the holidays and into the New Year and are grateful for the recovery of our business at this time. We are cautiously optimistic in the face of the new virus variant that appears to be gaining traction in some of our source markets. We have not seen any major cancellations in this regard and preliminary numbers indicate we met our projected passenger volumes over the weekend.”
Taxicab Union warned against price gouging By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net BAHAMAS Taxicab Union (BTCU) yesterday cautioned against price gouging in the sector, encouraging visitors to check the rates prior to getting into a taxi. Wesley Ferguson, its president, told Tribune Business about price gouging he understands is taking place at the Sir Lynden International Airport (LPIA) - but he doesn’t blame taxi drivers for this confusion. He said: “Sometimes you have to figure out what the visitors did before they got to the hotel. It is not always what the visitors say and then sometimes these people get into these SUVs. This is one of the things we have a problem with; we are having a problem with these SUVs operating from the airport as taxis, because
WESLEY FERGUSON once tourists get in these SUVs they will overcharge these people: they don’t tell the people how much it is going to cost them until they get them to their destination.” He added: “Then you have a situation where passengers may want
a ride to Paradise Island and it may be five or six of them, but they have to understand that each additional person after the first two is $4. So you have to take that into consideration as well. “Then sometimes these people make a bunch of stops. Sometimes they would stop to the liquor store or the food store and they figure it is the same price. So you have to find out if these people made stops on their ride from the airport or they had more than two passengers for the taxi ride. All of this adds to the cost.” Calling the SUV issue a longstanding and “vexing” issue at the airport, Mr Ferguson said: “This is why we have been trying to get the government for years to regulate this system. So it could be a clear decisive system at the airport: What kind
SEE PAGE 4
Senor Frogs ‘seeing a lot of business’ since reopen By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net
WESLEY FERGUSON
A POPULAR downtown eatery has brought back only 40 percent of its staff since reopening from its COVID-19 imposed closure in March, 2020. Shanika Russell, day manager at Senor Frogs, told Tribune Business the restaurant reopened for business officially two weeks ago and has steadily rebuilt its local clientele as cruise ship passengers start pouring in to supplement that. She said: “We’re seeing a lot of business. It seemed
as if we were never closed because a lot of returning customers are coming back and we’ve had very, very busy days. “Of course, it took some time for us to reopen because we had to make sure that everything was set in place, according to the government of The Bahamas. So we wanted to make sure that everything was clear concerning the interest of our guests, the interest of our staff that we are complying according to the government rules of the country. So, there was a lot of preparation and of
SEE PAGE 3