I am very pleased to be here today to participate in the opening of the Island House, a Bahamian owned and operated boutique hotel in Western New Providence.

The 30-room hotel has been a labour of love for the Holowesko family who are now the proud owners of two residential resort properties in the country, the other being the 23- room, all-Bahamian owned and operated Highbourne Cay Plantations on a private island in the Exuma Cays.

They are slowly being joined by other prominent Bahamian families who with vision and creativity are venturing into the hospitality industry and are introducing luxury and upscale amenitized boutique hotel products with a distinctive local flavour to the Bahamian hospitality industry.

The Holoweskos have invested over 40 million dollars developing this 10-acre, Island House property, which is considered a five star, one-of-a-kind, intimate retreat, catering to international and local travelers. The hotel features six rental apartments, lap pool, a first class gym, Bamford spa, squash courts, a yoga movement studio, coffee bar, an 80-seat meeting room and a 48-seat theatre. There are also two restaurants on property: Shima which features Southeast Asian cuisine and the family-owned Mahagony House Restaurant, already one of only a handful of signature fine dining restaurants the capital today.

I applaud Mark Holowesko and his daughter, Lauren, for taking a decision to invest in their homeland and to seek ownership in an industry traditionally dominated by international investors who have long capitalized on in its benefits and who continue to produce healthy returns on investment. The Public Treasury will also benefit as The Island House will likely inject several million dollars annually in to the Bahamian economy in direct wages, customs duty imports, VAT and hotel taxes.

I also applaud the Holowesko family for showcasing our Bahamian culture by infusing local community patronage, the exhibit of local art and cultural interchange into their business model of the operation. This overlay of our way of life within activities and ambiance of The Island House will bring genuine greet-and-meet charm and cultural focus to the extreme western tip of the island, and act as a local counter-point to the international flair of the larger hotel properties like Atlantis.

I am told that of the property’s 128 employees, only three are on work permits. So, I again applaud them for believing in the capacity of Bahamians to manage their business while bringing a uniquely Bahamian experience to every facet of the operation. After all, this is what people travel here for. Our beaches, our food, our friendliness, and our unique format and delivery of the Bahamian cultural experience.

The Holowesko’s are not the first Bahamians to venture into the hotel industry. Many have gone before them and some are still very successful at it, particularly in our Family Islands. But the industry has changed significantly from the time those first Bahamians entered the marketplace. Some of the changes have been good for business. For instance, although operating a hotel is still a relatively costly exercise, the advent of the Internet has significantly reduced the soft costs associated with marketing hotel properties and has extended the reach of even the smallest operator to every corner of the globe. And just to underscore this point, The Island House was just featured last month in the Boston Globe daily newspaper with a readership of 1.5 million, and in its online edition, with a monthly unique visitor readership of 6 million people at virtually no cost to the operation. That’s advertising or exposure that small operators today can rarely afford, but from these savings, comes the means for re-investment in the product so that it continues to deliver aesthetically attractive and functional spaces and a fresh décor for their guests.

No small operator can remain in business today without re-investment in product development, Internet marketing and continuous employee training.

Finding talented, skilled and capable Bahamian employees, on the other hand, has become more of a challenge today for all hotel operators who have found that they must share in the responsibility for skills development of their workforce, although the larger properties are more easily able to do so.

Some seem to have forgotten that hospitality is a truly an art, not just an attitude; and we need to focus more effort on refining that art and ensuring that customer expectations are indeed met, if not exceeded.
Finally, I believe that the future of the hospitality industry in The Bahamas is very promising. Currently our hotel plant stands at some 8,000 rooms in Nassau/Paradise Island, with about 1800 more rooms on Paradise Island than Nassau. In addition, there are several thousand private homes being offered for rental to the travelling public, which are of considerable economic benefit to the local construction industry, employees and suppliers. This will change with the opening of Baha Mar and The Island House, catapulting our capital city to an inventory of almost 11,000 rooms by end of year, with the majority of that inventory based in Nassau.

Given the scope of developments which have received government approvals, other islands in The Bahamas will undergo similar transformations which will have a significant economic impact on the lives of Bahamians, particularly those living in the Exumas, the Abacos, Bimini, Eleuthera and San Salvador.

So yes, I believe we are entering a new era of boutique hotel development in The Bahamas with Bahamians, such as the Holowesko family, will be leading the way. I hope that in the not too distant future other Bahamians will take the plunge and discover how truly rewarding it is to own and operate properties that integrate Bahamian culture because we know it, live it and wish to share it with the world, and because it presents the winning formula for attracting repeat customers. Travellers are looking for just this experience and we want them to be able to find it not only in Nassau, but throughout our islands.

In closing, once again, I heartily congratulate and thank the Holowesko family for demonstrating their commitment to this country by making this investment and wish them, the management and staff of the Island House an exciting and rewarding future in the hotel industry. I thank them for this manifestation in the economy and future of our country. I assure them of both my personal support and that of my Government.

Thank you.