The challenge of the Bahamas resorts that avoided Dorian's wrath

BLOOMBERG

Posted on September 5, 2019

The largest resorts in the Bahamas avoided the wrath of Hurricane Dorian. The next step is to make sure everyone knows. The Category 5 hurricane practically pardoned the island of New Providence, home to nearly two-thirds of the 1,750 hotel rooms in the Caribbean country, according to Resort Capital Partners. Nassau Airport is open, as is the huge Baha Mar resort, which includes the Grand Hyatt, SLS and Rosewood residences. Nearby, Atlantis Paradise Island – the megaresort that Brookfield Asset Management Inc. explored its sale – was also unaffected.

This is the good news for a country where tourism accounts for approximately half of the gross domestic product and the demand for rooms has been increasing. However, hotels in the Bahamas may still be affected by the hurricane, which claimed the life of at least twenty people, according to the latest official information, and left the island of Grand Bahama 70% underwater. It is likely that Dorian's brutal coup in the northern islands remains in the minds of travelers and will create the impression that the entire archipelago was devastated.

"There will be an impact on the demand for rooms, not because the hotels are closed, but because the perception is that they are," said Jan Freitag, senior vice president of the hosting data provider STR. This is what happened after hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the Caribbean in 2017. In places like the US Virgin Islands. and Key West, Florida, even hotels that quickly reopened their doors suffered minor reservations than usual.

"Tourists are left with a recent prejudice and markets directly and indirectly affected by a hurricane tend to see a smaller demand after the storm," said Michael Bellisario, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. "People will cancel and just won't come back. to book, or, in some cases, vacations are booked elsewhere and annual trips change places. ” The average occupancy rate of the 116 hotels in the Bahamas was 74.1% as of July, compared with 62.4% in the same period last year, according to STR.

Read on: Cruise companies want to help the Bahamas after the Dorian Pass

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(*) Bloomberg