Based on the fact that $0.85 of every $1 spent by tourists in the Bahamas leaks out of the country, the minister of tourism said that about $10.2 billion of the $12 billion currently committed to investment in the industry would ultimately end up outside the country.
Obie Wilchcombe in his Budget address in the House of Assembly, said that while “the Bahamas has the highest per capita earning from the tourism sector among the major destinations in the world, at the same time we lead our competitors in earnings lost due to the combination of imports associated with the construction and operation of our tourism products, as well as the propensity of our nation to consumer products and services sourced outside the Bahamas”.
He added that while the Ministry of Tourism had reported $1.6 billion worth of tourism spending in 2005, resulting from just over five million visitors, based on the 85 percent leakage rate, some $1.36 billion of this ultimately ended up outside the Bahamas.
Mr. Wilchcombe drew on the words of Professor Adam Clayton, who, during the recent Small Island Developing States (SIDS) conference in Nassau, aid the Bahamas lagged behind other destinations in terms of the real benefits derived from tourism.
Professor Clayton attributed this to the few links that had been developed between the Bahamian hotel industry and the private sector. Mr. Wilchcombe told the House of Assembly” “The tourism sector in the Bahamas is largely foreign-owned and operated, and at executive levels laden with too high a component of non-Bahamian staff, which exacerbates the picture we face with regard to our leakages.
“The Government of the Bahamas, and by extension the Ministry of Tourism, must set as national goals, the objective of reducing in a very deliberate manner, the leakage rate we are presently experiencing in The Bahamas.
“This must not only become the platform from which we move forward with our tourism business plans, but in fact our national economic plans driven by the effort of all government agencies.”
Meanwhile, attempting to paint a brighter future for Grand Bahama’s tourism industry, Mr. Wilchcombe said some 595 rooms, and 1190 beds, should be back in its room inventory by winter 2007, taking it close to where it was prior to the September 2004 hurricanes.
He added that the Wyndham Viva Fortuna was set to break ground by autumn 2006 on its 78-room condo hotel. Old Bahama Bay’s 25-room expansion was set to be completed by winter 2007, while the Ginn Clubs & Resorts $4.1 billion Versailles Sur Mer project for West End, Grand Bahama, would involve 4,000 condo hotel [rooms] οΎ– albeit a 20-25 year build-out.
The Ginn project will also include two 18-hole Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer golf courses, and a Monte Carlo-style casino, along with spas and fitness centres.
By Neil Hartnell, Tribune Business Editor
