Bimini, The Bahamas – Marina tourism with deep sea fishing activities are some of the main attractions that are drawing thousands of tourists every summer to the Bimini Big Game Fishing Club in Alice Town.
“We are all about tourism and we believe we’re going to have a very good year. I believe we are going to be extremely busy for this upcoming summer. March was an indicator of it,” said Hank Baer, director of resort operations at the Big Game Fishing Club.
“It’s going to be really exciting. We just recently brought in a dive boat so we do scuba, snorkelling, and sunset cruises. We have two charter boats here for deep-sea fishing and have actively participated with at least four charter boat captains for bone fishing. So, we’re more of an angler resort with more deep-sea and fly-fishing.”
Like in Exuma, the Bimini resort is catering to a growing industry of yachtsmen and sailboating aficionados that are frequenting the marina villages, expanding throughout the 700 islands of The Bahamas. Boaters are drawn to the island for their reasonable bone fishing packages and the universally accepted standards of their dive operation.
“It’s somewhat of a [marina] village, primarily because of the attachment of Guy Harvey, who is a marine biologist, affiliated with the ‘Shark Lab’ at Nova University, so he is very partial to marine life,” said Mr. Baer.
“In the Gulfstream restaurant, we have created a new theme there and it will be called the Hemingway Lounge. During our first high end Bill Fishing tournament on May 17 to 21, we have 25 boats coming and 150 people. The average buy-in is about $10,000 a vessel, but a trophy is being made that is staying in the resort with curios we just purchased, which will be part of our on-going theme.”
Last year on May 27, Mr. Baer and his management crew re-opened the resort for business. They met and conquered the challenges they faced with transforming the resort into a Bahamian global fishing attraction with Florida Key-style amenities.
By the end of December 2010, the resort reportedly served a little over 3,200 guests, bearing in mind they opened in mid-July and went out of season five weeks later, due to the September tourist visitation fall off.
“We didn’t have any rooms available until mid-July. We were under renovations of the main hotel and then we opened up 19 rooms about mid-July. The last section which gave us 51 rooms was done by the end of July,” said Mr. Baer.
“So, we have 51 rooms, 35 guest rooms, four penthouse rooms, 12 cottages, and 75 slips. I can tell you that from May 27 to December 31, we put out 27,000 covers related to the restaurant and our occupancy rate was about 12 percent. To give you a comparison, during the month of March, we were at 26 percent room occupancy and 32 percent marina [occupancy]. This March was our third best month, since we’ve been opened.”
With an initial investment of $3 million to $12 million, the Guy Harvey outpost leads expeditions of discovery as part of its DNA to exceed its guest’s expectations. “When you enter into an arrangement like this, you enter it for the long term. We certainly have a five-year plan, but we anticipate either meeting or exceeding the expectation that we have in 2011,” said Mr. Baer.
“We went into a downward trend with the economy, and now things are on an upward swing particularly with the attachment of Guy Harvey’s name to the resort because he’s world-renown.” Since Bimini Bay has recently changed hands to the new management of Rock International, the Bimini Big Game Fishing Club is seeing a slow, but steady return on its investment.
“Everyday up until May 27 is a new day for us. We can go back and look at statistic from the former owner, but its skewed in the context of when Bimini Bay was in development,” said Mr. Baer. “A lot of guests were coming in here that were either buying a home up there or looking at it, and they didn’t have their marina open, so people were staying here and eating here and using the facility. So, the numbers are somewhat inflated in that.”
Dedicated professionals working 24 hours and seven days a week offer a world-class service to boaters, who come to rest in Bahamian marina villages for the “man versus nature” fishing experience. The resort sees itself hiring more Bahamians as it expands its operations due to increased customer demand.
“When we did the start up project, we had 82 Bahamians employed here and at this present stage, I believe our capacity employee-wise I believe is 56, but that will be raised to 70 in the season,” said Mr. Baer.
“I just hired an additional eight for the Food and Beverage restaurant, which we also expanded the deck by 72 feet in length and 16 feet in width, carrying us to the seawall and giving us 76 seats out there. The original restaurant only had 89 seats with the outside before, so by doing that we added an additional 60 seats. Our capacity would be about 150 people for the upcoming season. So there’s more to come.”
Hank Baer is a Navy veteran and yacht captain from New York and is comfortable managing tropical logistics for Bimini’s most consistent and biggest money-maker since the early 1960’s. His passion for scuba diving and fishing brought him to our shores from the Pacific Ocean to create the Bimini Big Game Fishing Club into a “ship-shape” resort for the island destination.
Mr. Baer’s top of the line experience defines the mission and vision statement of the Guy Harvey world-class brand. It is what drives sport fishermen from all over the globe to reside in Bimini’s marinas for competition, relaxation, and rejuvenation.
By Gena Gibbs
BAHAMAS INFORMATION SERVICES
