No slowdown in spending among the many rich on this Bahamian island

Word that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce had been seen on the marina of this tiny speck (5 sq. miles) of an island for a trip was met with bemusement by the vacationers who had gathered to observe the magnificent sundown on the bar, and with dismay by locals, apprehensive that their little speck of paradise was turning into the subsequent Saint Barts.

“I hear she’s staying right up the street,” a girl sitting alone on the bar informed us. She was cheerfully downing completely chilled prosecco in a champagne flute.   

The locals appeared unimpressed.

“It’s the two percenters who are coming, and the ultra-rich,” one shopkeeper informed us, noting that enterprise had been brisk among the many wealthier Americans, Canadians and Brits which might be the spine of the economic system right here.   

Maybe too brisk.  

“We have 20 billionaires on this island alone. The traffic is getting to be unbearable,” she stated, eyeing me suspiciously.  

I straightened up and tried trying like a two percenter, however I wasn’t positive what they appeared like.

Traffic? What site visitors? I appeared out the window of her store. Most individuals had been driving round in golf carts. With a inhabitants of only one,800, Harbour Island and its one and solely city, Dunmore Town, makes Saint Barts (inhabitants 11,000) seem like midtown Manhattan.

The lady herself, she defined, had moved to Eleuthera, a 10-minute water taxi journey away, the place the hoi polloi not often come, apparently.

All of which begs the query: Why on earth would anybody, not to mention Taylor Swift and a bunch of billionaires, come to this tiny speck?  

Why are there so many enormous yachts sitting in Valentines Marina?

Harbour Island is barely an island. It’s an island off an island, on this case Eleuthera, some 60 miles northeast of Nassau. You cannot fly in. You must fly to Eleuthera, take a taxi to a dock a couple of miles away, and take a water taxi to Harbour Island.  

This inaccessibility, apparently, is a serious promoting level for the tiny group of individuals that may match on the island, and afford to pay the steep (Saint Barts-style) costs.

The operative phrase is “tiny.” The largest lodge has 41 rooms; the dozen or so different resorts have lower than that.  Altogether, there cannot be greater than 250 lodge rooms on all the island.  It’s unlikely you will see a giant world chain arrange store right here. I’s uncertain the infrastructure may assist a big lodge.  Not surprisingly, there appears to be a brisk enterprise renting out the few homes on the island.

Walk across the city for a couple of days, although, and you may see why a small group of vacationers hold coming again and appear very bored with making it greater:

• Pink Sands Beach: This is among the nice seashores of the Caribbean, certainly of the world. It actually is pinkish, due to the decaying shells of microscopic sea creatures. It stays white, lots of of toes offshore, no seaweed, no rocks, no something, simply blue water. It’s flat, and the sand is compact so you possibly can stroll with out sinking in.  It’s so compact that folks journey horses up and down the entire three-mile stretch.
• The eating places: How is it potential that an island with a couple of hundred guests can assist so many nice eating places? There’s native locations Queen Conch or Ma Ruby, which serves terrific Caribbean meals and is thought for its “Cheeseburger in Paradise” (It’s served on a brioche-style bun, and supposedly earned the praises of Jimmy Buffett). There’s terrific Italian meals at Aquapazza, and basic Caribbean meat and fish dishes at Latitude 25 on the Coral Sands Hotel, or on the stylish Dunmore Hotel, or at Malcolm 51 on the swanky all-cottage Pink Sands Resort, or the Rock House, or The Landing, or at Valentines. And nonetheless you possibly can’t a get reservation on many nights.
• The homes: You’d assume an island with so many rich guests and residents could be filled with large McMansions and multi-acre compounds. They are actually right here. The boat captain we employed for a day cruise quipped that “the millionaires live on the north side, the billionaires live on the south side, and everyone else lives in the middle.”  People like Bill Gates, Ron Perlman, Mickey Drexler, Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, and Wayne Huizenga are stated to have houses right here. But Dunmore Town is filled with modest, one and two-story houses which might be ablaze with coloration: blues, yellows, reds, a veritable explosion of pastels, together with purple morning glories in all places.
• The church buildings:  Walk round on a Sunday and you may hear singing.  It’s a non secular nation:  90% belong to some non secular denomination, although it is largely Protestant (Baptists and Anglicans), with Roman Catholics and a smattering of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Greek Orthodox, and others.  We attended the Lighthouse Church of God to listen to Pastor Samuel Higgs and guitarist Rocky Sanders and a heavenly group of singers rock the home with old-school gospel music. Mick Jagger and Lenny Kravitz have additionally stopped by. Higgs and Sanders performed golf equipment in Europe earlier than coming again to the island.
• The individuals: The Bahamian persons are well-known for his or her heat and friendliness, and it comes out in abundance on a small island like this. Just say “good morning” to anybody, and they’re going to cease and say, “Good morning!  How are you?”  They’ll smile, they usually imply it.

 While the locals could also be complaining about site visitors and wealthy individuals, do not anticipate the federal government of the Bahamas to close the door. Tourism accounts for 50% of the GDP of the nation, and employs practically 70% of the workforce.  Thanks to that infusion of money, per capita earnings is the third largest within the Western Hemisphere (behind the U.S. and Canada).

Luxury journey could also be booming, however journey to the Caribbean on the whole stays robust. Arrivals had been up 14.3% final yr, in response to a current report by the Caribbean Tourism Organization reported by Caribbean Journal.  

And whereas the locals could complain, any small island or metropolis would kill to get the sort of intense loyalty locations like this appear to engender.

The lady on the bar at Valentines stated she had been coming right here for 20 years, and had her honeymoon right here.  She had flown into Eleuthera on a personal aircraft along with her husband (who owned automotive dealerships within the Midwest), her kids, and mates of theirs. They had chartered a ship to spend a couple of weeks within the Bahamas, and could be going south to even smaller islands.

Why was she sitting alone on the bar?

Her household, she stated with a smile, was off searching for Taylor Swift.