Bahamas secures partners for boating business

Partnerships with reputable nautical organizations and marinas are netting thousands of boating visitors for The Islands of The Bahamas, according to a tourism boating specialist.

 

Earl Miller, general manager for Vertical Markets in the Ministry of Tourism’s Florida office, said the Ministry has forged meaningful partnerships that have brought lucrative business to Bahamian islands. The strategy was a major part of landing more than 157,000 private boating arrivals for the country in 2011.

Mr. Miller pointed to the example of the Ministry of Tourism’s major partnership with Sea Ray boat manufacturers. A joint venture brought a group of 60 Sea Ray boats and 365 participants to Atlantis Paradise Island in June, when the group took part in a variety of organized activities.

“Also, we partnered with Marine Max that bring us about eight groups every year, the largest being one that just went on Memorial Day to Bimini – 80 boats and 400 participants,” he said. “So those are the kind of partnerships we are looking for.”

The groups that arrive through the Ministry’s partnerships bring a financial windfall for Bahamian islands, Mr. Miller said. He said boaters have a lot of disposable income and their contributions are distributed to many vendors on the islands.

“If you know anything about boating, especially the smaller boats, we love the open fisherman boats because when they go over to The Islands of The Bahamas, they have to buy gas,” he said. “They have to stay in a room. They have to buy food. So the economic spill is huge.

“A small boat going over to Bimini, which is only 50 miles from here, is going to spend an average of about $3,000 to $5,000 for that weekend. So multiply that by 80 on the low end. Because those types of groups, when they go, we have boats anywhere from 40 feet to about 95 feet going over, and they average about six persons per boat.”

Mr. Miller said the Ministry of Tourism has developed several devices that help make boaters comfortable with venturing into international and Bahamian waters from Florida. One of their developments is a nautical map and chart that is distributed to boaters and marinas in Florida. He explained that the maps allow boaters to see how near Bahamian islands are to Florida. They also show navigation routes to the islands, giving boaters more information and confidence for their voyages.

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CEO: Booming business for Bimini Bay

As Bimini Bay Resort gets into its second phase of development, the resort is reporting a booming business that is poised to add a world-class casino, aggressively market its property and take advantage of coming infrastructural improvements on Bimini.

Alejandro Capo, CEO of RAV Bahamas, reported that 13 of Phase Two’s 131 residential homes have already been sold – six months after the start of the expanded development. Construction has already started on six of them and it is expected that construction will begin on another six before the end of August. Meanwhile, demand for properties like the upscale and environmentally sustainable Bimini Bay homes continues to grow in “secondary markets” as Bimini Bay has not yet launched its comprehensive marketing effort in primary markets, Mr. Capo said.

“We’re really going to go with the great marketing effort for the second part of this year to see if we can get the up northerners because right now our primary markets are South America and South Florida,” he said. “We really haven’t hit any of those northern markets like New York, New Jersey, the Metro area.”

With a new casino on schedule to open in December, Bimini Bay executives expect even greater focus to be on the property. With Malaysia-based Genting Group as a partner, Mr. Capo believed that Bimini Bay will become a world-renowned destination instead of a property that is extremely popular mainly in South America and South Florida. In the process, he said, employment on the island will increase. He estimates that the casino will need to hire another 100 people in Bimini. Indirectly, he said, the need for more casino regulators and other spin off jobs will result in a total of 250 to 300 new jobs.

Meanwhile, even without the casino, Bimini Bay’s marina is doing brisk business. While most boating destinations have seen reduced business over the past five years due to recession, Bimini Bay has seen increased business, Mr. Capo reported.

“People stopped using their boats to go further distances, and since we’re so close to South Florida, all the boats that have never come here before started coming because it was cheaper than spending the amount of gas it was to get to the Eleutheras and the Exumas,” he said. “Our boating business is up 40, 50% from last year which is huge. Our prices are up another 20% from what we use to book at and all of our major holidays have been sold out months in advance. So we’re really not seeing that downturn in our marina business.”

Mr. Capo was pleased that plans for a new airport terminal have been announced for Bimini. He said air transportation to Bimini had been the biggest obstacle to the hotel portion of Bimini Bay for the past 7 years. A new terminal with an extended runway will allow the resort to attract guests from further points of origin than South Florida in large numbers, Mr. Capo said.

Overall, he said, the future looks very bright for Bimini Bay.

“I think that we are about to launch into a new direction,” Mr. Capo said. “We’re going to become, I think, the diamond for all the Family Islands. It’s been a dream of my father’s since we got here 20 years ago, and I think that right now we’re at the precipice of what I think is going to be a great thing for not only The Bahamas (but) Bimini (and) the Caribbean in general and allowing such a unique and beautiful destination to become world renowned and put us on the map.”

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