Bahamas Wants 2,000 More Hotel Rooms for ‘Good Footing’

• The Bahamas’ prospects for continued tourism growth depend on bringing 2,000 hotel rooms, or 15% of its total pre-COVID inventory, back on line swiftly with the industry at “maximum capacity”.
• Robert Sands, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president, stated that the country must “address capacity” if its largest industry is to maintain the post-pandemic growth momentum, adding: “We have to get those rooms out of order back in order.”
• Apart from the loss of the now-demolished Melia Nassau Beach Resort’s 694 rooms and the closure of Atlantis’ Beach Towers property for redevelopment into the Somewhere Else concept (a new resort set to open in 2024 on Atlantis Paradise Island), the BHTA president said a “significant” amount of inventory has also been lost in Grand Bahama, largely stemming from the closure of two of the three properties that form the Grand Lucayan complex.
• Voicing optimism that hotel developers and operators are working to “reverse” these trends, Mr Sands explained that The Bahamas has withstood earlier negative international media coverage of its crime woes and US/Canadian travel warnings with bookings for the upcoming Easter period and winter tourism peak “meeting or exceeding the expectations” of many resorts.
• However, Mr Sands said increased room inventory - both among hotels and vacation rentals - remains critical to maintaining tourism and the wider economy’s momentum by providing sufficient accommodation to meet the still-surging demand for a Bahamas vacation.

 (Source: The Tribune)