Director General of Tourism Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace said Monday that recent events have made The Bahamas even more dependent on tourism than a decade ago.
Addressing the 12th Annual Bahamas Business Outlook Conference at the Radisson Cable Beach Resort and Casino, the Tourism chief listed 12 items he considered critical to The Bahamas reaching its full potential in tourist development.
His suggestions included: Lighting Family Island airports to accommodate night-time flights; completing the Prince George Welcome Centre (overdue since 1997); encouraging more Government-private sector cooperation; and more effective use of the Internet and other electronic media in promoting visits to The Bahamas.
Even though tourism is The Bahamas’ number one industry, it must become far more competitive to reach its full potential, Mr Vanderpool-Wallace said.
Relevant individuals must become more competent in national tourism management than ever before, he stressed.
The Tourism Director General told the business grouping that the real challenge is not about getting ahead of others, but ahead of ourselves.
He said that there needs to be a break in that type of “inertia” that many have experienced through the past several years, in which our past performances need to be out-performed by better performances every day.
Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace said that over the next 30 months, a significant difference can be made in the tourism industry in regards to performance, and detailed 12 requirements needed to grow The Bahamas’ market share of business. These he listed as:
* Private and public sector cooperation
* Training and development
* Empowering the “experience czar”
* Accelerating the development of destination Bahamas via the Internet
* The addition of a booking engine to bahamas.com
* The incorporation of E-commerce in the travel industry
* Florida/Bahamas combinations
* Re-invigorating private sector investments
* Reducing the cost of doing business
* Completing the tourism Welcome Center at Prince George Wharf
* Overseeing publicity
* Lighting Family Island airports to accommodate night flights.
The next 30 months will be critical to the Bahamas and the next 30 years, he said, and if knowledge accumulated in the past 30 years were used to accomplish the 12 items outlined, the potential of The Bahamas’ 700 islands would be fully realized.
According to Mr Vanderpool-Wallace, the potential that The Bahamas has for tourism growth, is greater than any other region in the Caribbean, mainly because of proximity to the United States. “We are generally perceived as safe, we have a variety of islands and many countries in this region are single destinations. We have multiple destinations and we can sell,” Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace stated, adding that the gap between actual performance and potential in The Bahamas is great. He explained that Bahamians, in comparison to other destinations, have a long way to go before The Bahamas reaches its potential, in comparison to other destinations.
He said that there is no “shortage of ideas” in terms of what is done in The Bahamas, but the fault lies in the inability of Bahamians to execute such ideas.
He said that much focus is placed on “autopsy” rather than “productivity”, and many continue to praise others who predict rain, rather than on those who build arks. “We have to get out of the business of talking about it and get in the business of doing it,” charged Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace.
Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace said The Bahamas needs a winning team, comprising of all “Bahamian hands at its disposal” in addition to “all the brains and hands than can be borrowed.”
“The fact of the matter is, if we don’t execute, we are not going to be successful. We have this recurring habit in The Bahamas of not using all the talent available to us and beyond our industry, there are many people who can help us in the tourism industry, but we have this insularity that prevents us from doing so,” he said.
Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace also questioned why was it that individuals working for the government protect those that do not perform. “Why do we protect a single individual and forget the benefits to 300,000 people. How does this ever make any sense? It is something that we begin to talk about, but never do anything about,” he said, adding that things should be handled differently.
By Tamara McKenzie, The Nassau Guardian
