With a population of over 1.3 billion, the People’s Republic of China implemented a strict family-planning policy in the late 1970s that restricts a family to having just one child, aimed at stabilizing the country’s population growth. Yet, according to information gleaned from the Internet, some current projections estimate that China’s population will be somewhere between 1.4 billion and 1.6 billion by 2025.
Economically, China’s economy has grown by an average of 9.5 percent a year over the past 20 years and shows no signs of slowing down soon, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which predicts that China will overtake most Western economies in the next five years. Given these facts, it certainly makes a whole lot of sense that Bahamas Ministry of Tourism officials, according to an article in Saturday’s Nassau Guardian, are on a mission in China to boost the country’s tourism sector.
A Chinese newspaper, The Shanghai Daily, reported that Ministry of Tourism officials were in Shanghai promoting the 700 islands of The Bahamas, hoping that potential Chinese visitors would take advantage of new visa regulations that came into force in February, when China signed an approved destination agreement with the Bahamas government.
China’s booming economy means that a growing number of Chinese will have disposable income to spend on vacations, and although The Bahamas is a good distance away from China, as one of the world’s leading tourist destinations, surely it will attract its share of the more affluent ones who can afford the 15,000 yuan (U.S.$1,875) that is the current round-trip airfare between Shanghi and The Bahamas. Certainly, with proper marketing, the prospects are great that there will be a vast improvement in the statistics which show that 1,000 Chinese visited The Bahamas each year since 2003.
Of course, this latest promotional visit to China by a Bahamian group may be used by those Bahamians who have in the past raised questions about the buddy-buddy relationship The Bahamas has been forging with China and Cuba to once again voice their concerns. Their trepidation is buttressed by fears
that The Bahamas’ relationship with these communist countries will offend The United States. They generally like to advance the argument that The Bahamas should be very careful not to antagonize The United States for fear that it might retaliate by closing the Customs pre-clearance facilities in Nassau and Freeport, which certainly would have a deleterious effect on the country’s tourism industry. In the case of China, what these critics tend to disregard, however, is that the United States has a very strong trade relationship with China and that American companies do tremendous business there. Indeed, just about every major American hotel chain operates in China ﾖ with the Grand Hyatt in Shanghai being listed as the world’s tallest hotel ﾖ and WalMart, the giant American chain of retail stores, has 59 outlets in that country.
Cuba, of course, is another story.
There is still a strongly held opinion among some Bahamians that the recent opening of an embassy in that country by The Bahamas did not sit well with the Americans, who have had a trade embargo in place against Cuba for more than four decades. Certainly, as a sovereign nation, The Bahamas has a right to determine who it wants to do business with, but the United States is our closest friend and most supportive neighbour in the region and “good friends” do not make decisions that they know will offend the other.
The Nassau Guardian
