Bahamas Hotel Association

Developers of the $100 million Balmoral community are gearing up to launch its $15 million phase two component, with 100 percent of units already sold in the first stage — bucking trends currently being registered in the real estate market.

The project is now readying to welcome its first residents into their home, following the near two-year construction period that saw around 150 workers working on site daily.

"We're moving full steam ahead [and] right now we're just getting ready to close on the first phase of the town homes and condominiums," Jason Kinsale, one of the primary developers, told Guardian Business.

The immediate growth of the Bahamian economy rests with the Ministry of Tourism's ability to fill airplane seats and bring stopover visitors back to these shores en masse, the minister of state for finance said yesterday, meaning group business will have to be revived as soon as possible.

Tourism arrival numbers will be up in March and April 2010 due to the country's free companion airfare promotion, the director-general of tourism told Tribune Business yesterday, while the Bahamas Celebration's inaugural cruise voyage to Grand Bahama will sail at capacity next month.

New Providence-based resorts are forecasting that average occupancies for the peak March-April period will be 4-5 per cent higher than last year, the Bahamas Hotel Association's (BHA) president said yesterday, with hotels expecting their profits to improve before witnessing any top line growth.