Port Lucaya Resort in Bahamas to Close

The 160-room Port Lucaya Resort & Yacht Club in Freeport, Bahamas, is up for sale and will close its doors Aug. 31, according to a resort spokesperson. This is another blow for Grand Bahama Island, where the unemployment rate climbed from 9 percent at the end of 2008 to 17.4 percent in May, according to the Bahamas Department of Statistics.

Port Lucaya Resort, which opened in 1993, is on a peninsula surrounded by the Port Lucaya Marina, which can accommodate boats of up to 170 feet. The marina is expected to remain open after the resort closes.

The economic downturn and low hotel occupancy also accounted for the loss of 85 jobs at the 73-suite Old Bahama Bay in West End, Grand Bahama, in late July. Hotel layoffs also have occurred in Nassau on New Providence Island, where the unemployment rate climbed from 8.7 percent at the end of 2008 to 14 percent in May. The Atlantis resort laid off 800 workers, or 10 percent of its staff, last year. This was followed by layoffs at the RIU Paradise Island.

The Wyndham Nassau Resort & Crystal Palace Casino shut down on Aug. 17 for eight weeks to reduce operational losses during the traditionally slow tourism season, according to officials of parent company Baha Mar. The move to temporarily close the property put 700 employees out of work. The resort plans to reopen Oct. 5.