Hundreds To Lose Jobs

[Bahamas News]

The Journal has learned that the operators of Atlantis, Paradise Island, intend to cut nearly 1,000 jobs this week in an effort to contain costs.

Link To Original Article (http://www.jonesbahamas.com/news/45/ARTICLE/18631/2008-11-10.html)

[trubahamian]

Time for all of us to pay attention....things will not get better for a while.

[concerned]

Time for all of us to pay attention....things will not get better for a while.
Heard that the Prime Minister to address this tonight or tomorrow.

[Delroy]

Heard that the Prime Minister to address this tonight or tomorrow.

It's tonight.

[FACTS ONLY]

November 10th, 2008
Tourism “In Trouble”
By Sasha L. Lightbourne
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said tourism is in "a great deal of trouble."
Mr. Ingraham is scheduled to address the country this evening. He is expected to address the nation on problems affecting the economy and how the government plans to move forward.

In the aftermath of the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States, the prime minister rebuffed suggestions that Mr. Obama’s election might have a positive effect on The Bahamas’ tourism sector.

Mr. Ingraham told reporters that tourism has "absolutely nothing to do with" Mr. Obama.

The latest reports from the Ministry of Tourism show that travel to The Bahamas is at an all time low, having decreased significantly over the past year.

"The tourism industry has nothing to do with President [elect] Obama," he said. "What has happened in the world preceded Mr. Obama’s election and it’s going to take quite a while to go away."

"We are feeling it here in The Bahamas in a very substantial way," Mr. Ingraham said. "People are working one and two days a week, many aren’t working at all, some have been laid off and others will be laid off."
He said that the Bahamian tourism industry has to be in trouble because the American economy is in trouble.

"It’s not only the American economy but the world’s economy is in trouble," the prime minister said.

"The Bahamas will continue to feel it and feel it strongly," Mr. Ingraham said. "It will cost us dearly."
Mr. Ingraham did not appear to think diversifying the economy would have better prepared The Bahamas to weather the current global crisis.

"There’s no diversification that could have prevented what has happened in the world and that’s theory," he said. "We’d all like to diversify our country but this is just not the time. Bahamians must realize that we are not isolated in this. Everyone all over the world is suffering."

Meanwhile, tourism officials are looking to new markets to help boost flagging arrivals.

Vernice Walkine, the director general of tourism, told the Journal recently that much emphasis would be put on markets outside of the United States, referring to Tourism Minister Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace’s announcement that the ministry would target what he called the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China.

"We have the minister [of tourism] going to China in November for the first time in his capacity as minister," Mrs. Walkine said. "He’s going to Beijing and Shanghai, and the intent really is to have him meet with and speak to tour operators, airlines and the media to begin to stimulate that market for us."

The latest reports from the Ministry of Tourism, issued last week, show that travel to The Bahamas is at an all time low, having decreased significantly over the past year.

She said the issuance of visas for Chinese travelers has been of great assistance.

"The fact that we are now processing visas for the Chinese traveler in our embassy in Beijing is a huge leap forward," Ms. Walkine said. "That is what has been the biggest impediment to us, beginning our very aggressive push into the Chinese market so now that that’s happening things will change."

[blp]

The Journal has learned that the operators of Atlantis, Paradise Island, intend to cut nearly 1,000 jobs this week in an effort to contain costs.
Link To Original Article (http://www.jonesbahamas.com/news/45/ARTICLE/18631/2008-11-10.html)
What they could do is to send home all those old people like J. Barrie Farrington so that some small people could still work.

[Iupdate]

No joke!

Time to pay attention?

PM will address this tonight?
I have addressed this for the pass few years.
I tried to start debates on this issue right here,
but who was interested?

There is nothing the PM or any of us can do,
but to go along and wait it out.

If you did not prepare for these times then we are out of time and the
only thing to do is to wait it out like billions and billions of us.

I said it before, and I will say it again, the US is an empire the US rules
the world, so what that means. that means that all governments are sub-administrations of the US and the US president is also our LEADER AND
KING OF THE WORLD. Sound silly but it has always been this way.

Remember the Roman empire? This is how it is, this is how it always was and will always be and there is nothing no one can do about it.

So what all this means is when the US pulls out of this so will we.
We are in for a long and hard haul.
So what will the PM say except what is said here.

The only thing is that we can only hope that it does not get to bad.

[nationbuilder]

Oh so that was the reporter at that interview that was asking all the stupid questions. Ok then.

[Islangal]

I think it is tonight at 8pm on channel 11.
OOh well!

[Islangal]

Oh so that was the reporter at that interview that was asking all the stupid questions. Ok then.

LOl! yea this got me too. And the look PM gave her like why are you asking such dumb questions so I will give you a dumb answer. lol

[generalcrazy]

so, will dis mean less traffic?
:bouncy::bouncy:

[BAHMIA]

At atlantispijobs.com, there are only ten jobs being advertised. 10! This is more serious than I thought.
Consider the other shoe dropped!

ETA: Now there are only three jobs avbl.

[nationbuilder]

LOl! yea this got me too. And the look PM gave her like why are you asking such dumb questions so I will give you a dumb answer. lol
I dont know where many of these reporters in this country came from, seriously. They are embarrassing.

[Islangal]

so, will dis mean less traffic?
:bouncy::bouncy:
Yea less traffic, more crimes, more children pull from private schools, more businesses closing, more houses and vehicles taken by the banks, more marriages/relationships stress, etc. There's gonna be alot more of everything other than jobs and money.

[nationbuilder]

It is amazing how some Bahamians seem to think that we are supposed to be immune to what is happening globally though. Job losses are occurring world wide, so are business closures, foreclosures. Even the most diversified economies in the world (the United States, UK, etc) are suffering.

Over 1.5 million people lost their jobs in the US as of September of this year. And we all saw how many major banks went belly up around the world. We will just have to weather this like everyone else. There is nothing at all the Bahamas could have done to prevent what every other country in the world could not prevent.