Michael Weber, Our Lucaya general manger, who served as guest speaker for the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce's monthly meeting yesterday, at the Ruby Swiss Restaurant, outlined several aggressive strategies that the hotel's marketing team is undertaking to increase bookings and visitors to the island.
He said that the status of their relationship with the union is a cordial one, but at the end of the day business is a top priority.
"We will work along the guidelines of the union, but we still run our own business and we have to be mindful that we cannot allow someone to run our business or dictate how we run our business," he said.
"In the long run we are the ones that pay the price and they don't, so there are certain ways in operation that we have to do things and we may have to let our staff know that it has to go this way because of the operations."
Weber added that a business has to be run a certain way, but outside of that they are prepared to work with the union, hand-in-hand, on whatever issue.
Meanwhile, Weber said that partnerships with the Discovery and Celebration Cruise lines are progressing well with a recent booking of 70 persons in one day. Additionally the hotel has had three major groups in recent times that has increased business and have 26 scheduled wedding events for the year.
Weber said that the sales marketing staff is stationed at various hot spots in North America and the hotel is now targeting the European and Latin markets, but attracting the larger groups remains a challenge because of stiff competition.
"Business levels are less than what we were accustomed to, but we are stable at the moment and we are still doing well. We are going to see the influx on the European business coming into the hotel and we are approaching the Latin American market now, because our summer is going to be their winter and that is another market that is going to be coming through this summer."
Weber said that creativity is key in beating out the competition and the property is trying to create incentives to be ahead of the game.
"We look at competitors and find out what they are offering and I have to admit some are weak. We have spoken to different vendors to offer groups and create a win-win situation," he said
"We have to look at it as Our Lucaya supports the island and Our Lucaya cannot do it without the support of everyone else," said Weber.
