Bahamian tourism authorities are trying to find ways to stanch the leakage of the lion’s share of each tourism dollar earned by The Bahamas tourism sector, a phenomenon reiterated recently by tourism official Franceso Frangialli.
Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe told The Bahama Journal a national survey is now underway to find ways of plugging those leakages and ensuring that more of the tourist dollar spent in The Bahamas stays in The Bahamas.
Mr. Frangialli is the Secretary General of the UNﾒs World Tourism Organization, and at the recent celebration of World Tourism Day that organization had a summit in Portugal called a “Think Tank”.
Mr. Frangialli said, “Too little research is yet done on the linkages which demonstrate the economic multiplier effect of tourism.”
Mr. Wilchcombe assured that The Bahamas is addressing that very issue.
“Our research unit at this present time is conducting a national survey. We are talking to our business partners, we are in the various islands determining what happens, and that is because we are preparing a document ahead of our forthcoming tourism conference because the theme of the conference will be centered around stopping the leakages,” he said. “See, we want to create linkages by reducing the leakages.”
Mr. Wilchcombe explained that at the conference, slated for January 2007, the focus would be on educating the Bahamian populace on opportunities to participate in the tourism economic engine.
During Senate debate of the 2006/2007 budget, FNM Senator John Delaney pointed out that Florida, as The Bahamasﾒ major trading partner, gets more of The Bahamas tourism dollars than The Bahamas.
The UNWTO Think Tank in Portugal also concluded that investment in tourism infrastructure; education and information communication technology (ICT) could create long-term employment.
Mr. Wilchcombe added that The Bahamas continues to be among the industry leaders in tourism-related ICT ever since former Tourism Director General Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace embraced IT during his tenure.
The minister pointed out that when Mr. Frangialli was in The Bahamas earlier this year, he was “very impressed” with the work the ministry has done on ICT.
The minister said Mr. Vanderpool Wallace’s move led the ministry to introduce what has become, Mr. Wilchcombe believes, “an envy of the entire tourism industry.”
He referred to the agreement between the ministry and Indusa, a technical consulting firm, which allows The Bahamas to “dissect immigration cardsﾅthat allows us to pointedly determine where visitors are coming from and what their expectations are, what they love to do, and weﾒre then able to market directly to these individuals.”
“The Ministry of Tourism has been able to share the ideas (on ICT) with the rest of the world ﾖ thatﾒs including the Commonwealth (for example) at the very first meeting of the Commonwealth Ministers of Tourism a couple of years ago. We were able to expose our systems to the ministers from all over the Commonwealth,” Mr. Wilchcombe said.
“Weﾒve done so at the regional level, at the CARICOM level. Weﾒve been able to explain to them where we are and what weﾒre doing, and in fact, weﾒve been able to make (ICT) a part of our industry. Weﾒre still growing it.”
Here the minister disclosed that a new department has been established in the Ministry of Tourism tasked with creating new approaches to marketing that the ministry has been utilizing.
“See the world has changed. Television ads are no longer whatﾒs drawing people to your country. Newspaper ads and radio ads, theyﾒre no longer the only approaches. What has happened is the computer (and) information technology,” Mr. Wilchcombe said.
“These are the ways now that people that we target in particular are getting information about the various destinations and being able to book for themselves their vacations, and in fact, plan their vacations. So the cyberspace has taken over.”
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
