Union: Taxi drivers now making close to pre-COVID income

Taxi cab drivers are now making almost as much daily income as they did prior to the tourism sector shutdown because of COVID-19 last year, Bahamas Taxi Cab Union President Wesley Ferguson said yesterday.

Ferguson said the recent and sharp increase in visitor arrivals month over month, along with the home porting system that is currently in place with Royal Caribbean International (RCI), has significantly benefited the taxi drivers.

“The income of a taxi driver is basically very compatible with what they used to make prior to the COVID-19 shutdown,” he told Guardian Business.

“You know there was a big announcement about the regular cruise ships coming back here the beginning of next month and, of course, the home port entities have been very, very lucrative for taxi drivers. We have RCI, which has been operating for the last two weeks. We’ve seen an increase in our revenues as a result of that and coming on stream this week is Crystal Cruises. We’ve just negotiated with them this morning and got information on how taxi drivers can benefit from their home port experience. That seems very hopeful and fruitful for taxi drivers.”

Ferguson said, however, that only about 60 to 70 percent of taxi drivers are back to work.

“There is a percentage of taxi drivers who are still out of work. Either they may have branched off to other job opportunities or some of them may have lost their taxi plates and are not yet back to work. But for the most part, I think about 60 to 70 percent of taxis are back on the job,” he said.

The Ministry of Tourism has estimated that approximately 110,000 visitors came to The Bahamas last month, based on the number of travel visas purchased.

And with Atlantis and Baha Mar reporting earlier this week that they are experiencing their highest occupancy levels since the start of the year, tourism stakeholders remain optimistic.

“It seems as if the Fish Fry is among the more popular eateries, along with places like Green Parrot and Poop Deck. A lot of people opt to just do tours, because a lot of them are coming here for the first time. There are quite a few who just browse the downtown area and although some of the shops are not yet open, the majority of them are,” Ferguson said.

“The visitors who have been here before, especially those who had a Nassau 

experience prior to COVID-19, would like to see everything get back to normal, with the straw market being opened, some of the night clubs and some of the old stuff like native shows. But a lot of tourists are doing tours around the island and they are finding ways to make themselves busy.

“Most of the time tourists come here basically just to enjoy the beach and the Bahamian people. So as long as the beaches are available to them they’re happy. They’d like to see the jet ski operators, the coconut vendors and hair braiders get back to some sort of normalcy and to see that we are rebounding fruitfully.”

Over the weekend, Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis lauded the tourism “bounce back”, stating “Our taxis and tour buses are extremely busy. In fact, if you listen to them, they would inform you that they’ve never had it so good. Both tour buses and taxis on New Providence have had to deny … passengers because of how occupied and busy they are.”

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