In the face of constant criticisms over the need for more visible signs of progress from the Downtown Improvement Initiative, representatives of the Nassau Tourism Development Board said that without a concerted effort by all the Bay Street stakeholders the project could never truly be successful.
According to Frank Comito, executive director, unless three very decrepit properties in the downtown area were dealt with, no amount of improvements to the area could truly be appreciated.
He said that the absolute unattractiveness of these buildings would always overshadow any progress the board attempted to make in the area that is at the heart of the visitor experience.
He gave the locations of these three properties as Bay Street, east of East Street, Cumberland Street and west of Bay Street.
“My defense has always been until those three very visible properties are dealt with no matter what we do people are going to complain,” Mr. Comito said.
He identified other factors that served as a hindrance to the progress of the initiative as the illegal disposal of refuse by some Bay Street merchants, the lack of participation financially and otherwise by some of the stakeholders on Bay Street in the board’s efforts to improve the area and the barrage of illegal signs that clutter the streets and poles. He said that together all these things led to the face of Nassau appearing incredibly unattractive to visitors.
Mr. Comito, along with the newest champion of the NTDB, Susan Pattusch shared with The Guardian in an exclusive interview on Wednesday, plans for the organisation.
While Mr. Comito will retain his position as executive director, he plans to take a less visible role in the organisation, and will instead focus his efforts on his new cause, The Bahamas Hotel Association. He leaves the running of the NTDB to Ms. Pattusch, who assumed the role of senior manager last Monday.
Mr. Comito, who has worked with the NTDB for over six years, said he intends to take a back seat in most instances, except for very key tourism development projects. He explained that the decision to retain the position at the NTDB fit in with the new vision of the BHA to liaise more with other private sector organisations.
“With BHA we hope to broaden our mandate in scope,” he said. “This also includes looking at ways we can strategically align ourselves with other organisations like the Chamber of Commerce, (and) the Nassau Tourism Development Board.”
Charting the growth of the NTDB, Mr. Comito said that since the inception of the organisation in 1995, a consistent focus has been placed on trying to improve the different aspects of the tourism product. The board was formed as an outgrowth of the Duty Free Promotion Board which worked tirelessly in the early 1990’s to bring the concept of duty free shopping, which had already taken hold in competing destinations like the British Virgin Islands, to The Bahamas. “Their whole aim was to make duty free shopping a part of our tourism offering,” he said. “They worked with government to pass legislation that exempted a number of items from duties and subsequently reduced the price of almost 30 categories of traditional tourism merchandise.”
According to Mr. Comito the advent of duty free shopping was the first step in transforming The Bahamas from a “T-shirt shanty town” stop for cruise passengers to the upscale shopping Mecca it has become today.
“You still have the T-shirt shops because there’s a demand for that but it’s upgraded and elevated the product offering considerably.”
Despite this elevation, the NTDB executive director said that the overwhelming responses received from visitors in exit surveys was a consistent lack of satisfaction in terms of the destination living up to expectations.
“They see these beautiful ads that win all types of marketing awards but when they come here their expectations aren’t being met.”
He said that this drew concern from all the tourism stakeholders and out of this concern the NTDB was born. The board now consists of over 150 businesses representing a wide cross section of industries including retailers, banks, real estate firms, taxi drivers and hotels, who work in tandem with the government in an attempt to improve the tourism product.
“It is a variety of interest, primarily the downtown interest but other interest,” Mr. Comito said “…They realized their industries don’t thrive and do well if tourism isn’t doing well. They all got together and said look we’ve got to really find some form of collective way to address our product deficiencies.”
Since its formation, the NTDB has worked on improving the downtown area through beautification projects that include repairing sidewalks, street lights and drainage as well as adding extras such as benches and hanging baskets to provide an added charm to the historic street
Recently, the board embarked on a comprehensive plan to make improvements to the face of New Providence through the Downtown Improvement Initiative. Since the inception of the programme in late 2002, a matrix of deficiencies was identified. According to Mr. Comito, a number of these deficiencies have been addressed. He admitted however that there was still a lot left to be done.
“If any one could take a view or a snapshot a year ago versus today, there’s a distinct difference; in fact visitors will even tell you that.”
Mr. Comito identified obvious problems still needing attention as the traffic and congestion, the illegal stopping of jitneys, insufficient pedestrian crossings, illegal and inappropriate vending, solicitation of the visitors by children and the too frequent usage of foul language.
Taking over from Mr. Comito, Ms Pattusch intends to do a walk-about of the area within the next 30 days to determine the areas of downtown Nassau that still required attention. Excited about the work of the board so far, Ms Pattusch firmly believes that the best approach towards fulfilling the vision of the NTDB for the downtown area is getting all the stakeholders of Bay Street involved.
“People aren’t working enough to take responsibility for themselves,” she said. “I think just from my limited view that a part of my initiative will be to inspire the people that keep pointing fingers to do something.”
Martella Matthews, The Nassau Guardian
