Critical assessments of the tourism plant in the Northwest Bahamas were still underway in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma as Ministry of Tourism officials maintained their momentum of wooing tourists here.
But the message that was largely sent out yesterday was that it was business as usual for the most part with all airports, deepwater harbours and most hotels operational.
However, in Grand Bahama – one of the islands that was clobbered in the storm – the Old Bahama Bay Resort remained off-line after sustaining moderate damage to its property. The resort was scheduled to reopen within 30 days.
“While evaluation of the residential areas of the island continues, the resort area of Grand Bahama suffered minimal damage limited largely to clean-up and landscaping operations,” the tourism alert noted.
The Freeport Harbour was back to normal with Carnival Cruise Line resuming its port calls. The Discovery Cruise Line, which offers daily service from Fort Lauderdale to Freeport was expected to resume service today.
Grand Bahama was battered in the last three storms that affected The Bahamas; Wilma, Frances and Jeanne, forcing the closure of the anchor property of the Royal Oasis Resort which still remains offline.
The last report from the Central Bank of The Bahamas was that up to August there was a 6.9 percent decline in total arrivals to The Bahamas to 3.7 million with air arrivals declining by 1.9 percent and tourists who come here by sea falling off by 9 percent over 2004’s figures.
Analysts said weakness was particularly pronounced in Grand Bahama which was most affected by last September’s double storms. Overall arrivals there contracted by 25.6 percent, with double digit declines in both air and sea tourists.
The positive performance in New Providence continued to drive overall tourism developments.
Assessments about hurricane damage were still being conducted for the Family Islands, but early indications are positive, said the tourism report.
In Bimini, second homes and residential dwellings were severely damaged when storm surges washed ashore and the Bimini Beach Club lost half of its 40 rooms.
However, in North Bimini the Bimini Big Game Club is open for business and the marina was undamaged. The island’s airport is operational and ready to receive flights once service returns to normal.
“We are still trying to get everything cleaned up,” said Bimini administrator Brenda Bullard.
“We will experience a heavy economic loss because we were in a position where we were pretty backlogged with unemployed persons so the damage to the Bimini Beach Club is going to add to it, especially now because this is the slow season and there are not much visitors coming to the island at this time.”
In Abaco there was only slight damage and all tourism facilities are said to be online. Airport operations around the country are also up and running.
The Bahamas Diving Association reported that diving operations remained largely unaffected.
“All our dive operators are up and running at 100%, thankfully, it was just a brush when it passed here” said Neal Watson, the association’s president. “I would suggest divers traveling to the Bahamas check and confirm diving plans with our various members in The Bahamas.”
The association comprises 35 resorts and dive operators.
By: Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
