{"id":36792,"date":"2013-06-24T09:51:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-24T13:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=36792"},"modified":"2013-06-24T10:01:44","modified_gmt":"2013-06-24T14:01:44","slug":"bnt-seeks-funding-for-best-kept-secrets-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/06\/bnt-seeks-funding-for-best-kept-secrets-plan","title":{"rendered":"BNT Seeks Funding For &#8216;Best Kept Secrets&#8217; Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_16621\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16621\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16621\" title=\"bnt\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/bnt.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/bnt.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/bnt-150x112.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16621\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bahamas National Trust<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Bahamas National Trust (BNT) is aiming to raise $32 million to finance its latest five-year plan, its executive director disclosing it planned to unlock this nation\u2019s \u201cbest kept secrets\u201d for tourists.<\/p>\n<p>Eric Carey, the BNT\u2019s executive director, speaking to Tribune Business from Canada, said the organisation was set to work closely with the Ministry of Tourism to promote the Bahamas\u2019 national parks and marine protected areas (MAPs) as a tourist attraction.<\/p>\n<p>Noting that foreign colleagues consistently expressed surprise that there was no reference to these valuable areas in the Bahamas\u2019 tourism marketing literature, Mr Carey said the BNT had \u201cno option\u201d but to raise the $32 million it deemed necessary to secure this nation\u2019s \u201cenvironmental future\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Among the financing options being assessed are covering 25 per cent of national park operating costs through user fees.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Carey, using the example of the Exuma Land and Sea Parks, said mega yachts chartered for up to $100,000 per week were cruising this area for free, and the BNT aimed to change that by ensuring high net worth users \u201cpay to play\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Breaking down the $32 million financing target, the BNT executive director said some $10 million consisted of monies it believed it could earn based on current grants, donations and fund raisings.<\/p>\n<p>Estimating that it will cost $20 million to deliver all the goals in its 2013-2017 strategic plan, Mr Carey said another $10 million in additional financing was needed to fill the existing funding \u2018gap\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bahamas National Trust (BNT) is aiming to raise $32 million to finance its latest five-year plan, its executive director disclosing it planned to unlock this nation\u2019s \u201cbest kept secrets\u201d for tourists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[76,134,33],"class_list":["post-36792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-environment-2","tag-money","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}