Nearly 750 Baha Mar employees have received the COVID-19 vaccine, resort officials said yesterday.

Baha Mar President Graeme Davis said the resort is offering employees an incentive for vaccination.

“Marriott International has offered that to all of their associates across North America,” Davis told The Nassau Guardian yesterday. 

“We felt that was a good practice. We’re not here to force any associates to take the vaccine. We’re encouraging it.

“We’re encouraging it in another way by offering an additional incentive, which many companies are doing that, leading companies — that are thinking about their associates — are offering that half day’s wage. That, for us, is hundreds of thousands of dollars in incentives to support our associates and give them that additional incentive for taking that time.”

He noted that vaccination is not mandatory for employees.

Davis said Baha Mar will certainly respect employees’ decisions to not be vaccinated.

Baha Mar is one of five vaccination centers on Paradise Island/New Providence.

“This is an incredible opportunity to create the safest possible environment we can here at Baha Mar, as well as the entire country,” Davis said.

“This is what we’ve all been waiting for, that opportunity to create immunity for the entire country of The Bahamas.

“We are just thrilled to be doing our part to help support the government and certainly the government supporting the key industry here in The Bahamas, which is tourism.

“By allowing the opportunity to have tourism associates be vaccinated, that’s going to give a head start to bring more tourism back to the island and help jumpstart the economy. So, we’re very proud to be offering up the Baha Mar convention center.”

Davis said the resort has spent over $1 million on COVID-19 testing.

“We’ve had over 75,000 tests done now with our guests and our associates, who we are testing vigilantly every week through the Doctors Hospital program,” he said.

“Our guests are being tested on arrival.

“We’re offering the travel with confidence program. Should a guest test positive while they’re here on arrival, or before their departure, we will offer them a complimentary stay in a suite for a 14-day quarantine as well as $150 per person per day for food and beverage.

“Should they need to fly back to the United States, we are offering complimentary air transportation back to the closest port down in Florida. Now, that is in addition to the health visa and the health insurance program as well.”

Davis said several guests have already taken advantage of the program.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the tourism industry in The Bahamas to a halt.

Thousands of tourism workers were furloughed and resorts were shuttered for several months.

However, the industry is now starting to rebound as mass vaccinations take place globally and some countries experience a decline in COVID cases.

Davis said Baha Mar’s leisure bookings are “well ahead” of what they were in 2019.

He noted that group bookings and occupancy are still behind.

“We don’t see that gap closing until later this year but we’re encouraged to see the demand continue to build for leisure customers and the guests who come down to The Bahamas and certainly to Baha Mar,” Davis said.

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