Hard times in Grand Bahama could likely force the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union to consider shutting down the International Bazaar, one of the shopping meccas in Freeport.
But a tourism official said a plan was in the making to avert such a move.
Lamenting the economic situation for the merchants at the Bazaar, Pat Bain, hotel union president, blamed declining patronage due to the exodus of Grand Bahamians in search of job opportunities elsewhere, the protracted closure of the nearby Royal Oasis Resort and a falloff in visitors to the island.
The union owns 40 percent of the Bazaar in leased properties.
“The shops are being affected by low sales to the extent that some of them have had to close and lay off some of the employees, so unless we can find a way to give them some good news that the Royal Oasis has been bought, will be renovated and put into action in short order then there might be some other drastic action in terms of total closure of the Bazaar.
He called the rebound in the tourism industry in Grand Bahama “slow and painful.”
Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne battered the island last September, throwing several resort properties offline, destroying vast amounts of houses and dealing the number one industry a wallop.
Data for the first half of 2005 shows a broad based falling off in visitor arrivals to The Bahamas by 5.6 percent to 2,641,931 with sea arrivals lower by 7 percent and air arrivals off by 2.5 percent.
Grand Bahama led the decline in arrivals, according to the latest economic and financial report released by the Central Bank of The Bahamas this week. It said the weakness was most pronounced with total arrivals falling off by 23.6 percent including a 16.7 percent reduction in sea arrivals and a more than one-third contraction in air arrivals.
Officials from the Ministry of Tourism and the Grand Bahama Port Authority were working on a plan to avert the closure of the International Bazaar, Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe told the Bahama Journal.
In fact, Mr. Wilchcombe – who said he is well aware of the difficulties that the merchants have been facing – indicated that meetings were underway with a view to bringing new life to the shopping area.
“To do that we believe that we will be able to generate internal business as well as touristic business that will come from the other areas outside of the International Bazaar area, outside of the traditional Royal Oasis Resort; the downtown area of Grand Bahama,” said the minister while declining to disclose specific details.
“We are very concerned about the difficulties that they face and we also applaud the union and the other owners of businesses in the Bazaar who have kept things going since the hurricanes came last year.”
Meantime, negotiations are still underway with a potential new buyer for the storm battered Royal Oasis Resort which never came back on-line after last year’s double storms. The Our Lucaya Resort is now the anchor property.
“We are hoping that we can put a buyer in place and an operator in place that can bring real growth and dimension to the International Bazaar area, the Royal Oasis area and create what we believe should be a compatible hotel arrangement downtown as we see in Lucaya,” Mr. Wilchcombe said.
The hotel union has operated a rent and lease business for years to shops in the upscale shopping center. Mr. Bain expressed confidence that the Royal Oasis may provide the stimulus needed to turn things around in Grand Bahama.
“We will continue to watch the situation for now, but the union is not prepared to go beyond December of this year with the International Bazaar in such a state,” he said.
By: Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
