Pinder: With reopening of major hotels, ‘there’s hope’

As major hotels prepare to open this week and next week, Director of Labour John Pinder said much is hanging in the balance as thousands of Bahamians eagerly await returning to the workforce.

The Atlantis resort will be the first and largest of the major resorts to open, beginning tomorrow with at least 3,000 employees set to welcome guests to the property.

Next week, Baha Mar, British Colonial Hilton and One Particular Harbour at The Pointe are expected to open.

“The fact that some people are going back to work will give other employees some hope that the organization will sell sufficient rooms to get the majority of the staff back at work. We can’t say how many will be going back in the first stage, but we do anticipate that at least a high percentage of those persons – maybe in the mid 50 percent – may be able to go back to work within the next two months,” Pinder told Guardian Business.

“So hopefully by the end of January we will see some turnaround in the country’s economy and some of these businesses will start to make some revenues to be able to get the right staff complement in place. But presently, the decisions are being made to bring sufficient staff to cover the rooms that have been sold.”

Pinder – who said he has been in a steady stream of communication with all of the major properties – said these openings are a sign of hope for Bahamian workers and the economy.

“I had talks with all of them. Certainly Atlantis is expecting to be able to open as scheduled and they expect to have staff back to work, but they haven’t been able to say how much up to that point. But again, it is still depending on how many bookings are made and how many persons are coming. Baha Mar is also seeing if it can get something going, so that I guess early in the new year they can get going again. The Pointe is trying to open Margaritaville to see how they can get some bookings also. There’s hope,” he said.

“Once the tourism industry starts to rebound, so will the economy. Once the economy starts to pick up, a lot of those persons that were laid off, companies that were not able to have sales or reap the kind of revenue target they would have anticipated, they would begin to start calling persons back to work.”

One Particular Harbour at The Pointe’s General Manager Larry Magor confirmed yesterday that the property is on schedule to open on December 15.

But even with the reopenings, Pinder said he doesn’t expect a huge shift in unemployment numbers.

“You have to look at the hair braiders, you have to look at the straw vendors, you have the taxi drivers, the surrey drivers, the livery drivers, the jet ski operators. All of them remain unemployed at this time because there’s no business,” he said.

“We’re not going to see that shift in unemployment until we see more bookings, more heads in beds. It’s unfortunate that the cruise lines announced that they won’t be coming until sometime next year. You appreciate those ones coming off the ships because they keep the downtown jobs, straw vendors, taxi drivers and tour operators going.”

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/pinder-with-reopening-of-major-hotels-theres-hope/