Bahamas Resorts Still Recovering from Impact of Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy’s impacted Bahamas resorts on several levels, damaging hotel and resort properties in the region and also impacting the Caribbean vacation market in the U.S., said a top hotelier.

George Markantonis, president and managing director at Kerzner International, which operates Nassau’s sprawling Atlantis resort, said the storm’s passage caused a “seven-digit loss” that included lost room nights along with the cancellation of a tournament scheduled at the property. Obie Wilchcombe, the country’s minister of tourism, at the time estimated several thousand room nights lost for the country.

While business has resumed and, according to Markantonis, “this year will be better than last year,” Sandy’s impact led to cancelled bookings into December. “People feel guilty traveling to the Bahamas if their next-door neighbor or relative just lost a home,” Markantonis told the Nassau Guardian.

A number of Bahamas-based resorts reported damage in the storm’s aftermath including Nassau’s Sandals Royal Bahamian, which suffered a reported $1 million in damage to the resort’s pier. The damage has since been repaired, a Sandals spokesperson said Monday. The resort was recently the subject of meetings between the Bahamas government and Sandals officials, who had described the cost of operating the resort as “unsustainable.”

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