Harald Fuhrmann, managing director of Bahamas Consult in Seeg certainly does not agree with statements made by the tourist minister for the Bahamas and the chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, Obie Wilchcombe. On the occasion of the 25th Caribbean Tourism Conference in Freeport/Bahamas Fuhrmann emphasized to the international press that such marketing slogans such as “Do it Caribbean” or “Itﾴs better in The Bahamas” are incompatible with an “honest information policy”.
Travel agents representatives from the USA, Canada and Europe in particular are still being invited to Freeport until the 31st October to provide them with tools and strategies for revamping tourism in the Caribbean as a product following the terrorist attacks of September last year. However in the seminars Fuhrmann warns against presenting the tourist products in a wholly positive light and saying things which are not altogether true. He also levels criticism at questions put through the internet to the travel forums supported by the ministries of tourism not being answered honestly and truthfully. Moreover, Fuhrmann goes on to complain that, in their reports, travel journalists should not simply reiterate statements made by the experts, who at the same time lobby on behalf of the tourism ministries, nor should the travel journalists simply repeat what they saw and did in the course of the carefully controlled itinerary of their courtesy trips. Fuhrmann went on to say that travel journalists should also be prepared to initiate critical debate on holiday destination areas, because this would also prevent expectations of the Bahamas as a holiday destination being generated which – as the study on tourism in the Bahamas published last year showed – can not, in the final analysis, always be fulfilled.
With regard to the country organising the Caribbean Conference this would also mean that reports would not only have to include great sandy beaches, good fishing and undersea adventure. Because these options would not be open to you if you were to travel there on holiday in the hurricane season as a result of not knowing any better. Fuhrmann stresses that what there is to say has to be described, however nothing must be concealed either. He is angered when holidaymakers return home to Germany disappointed, because they found it unbearably hot and stormy there in the summer, or because it was too rainy and cool there in the winter. According to what he has to say, the best time to travel to the Caribbean is November as well as March and April. The experts on the Bahamas say that in the last three years the winter months, in Nassau at least, have certainly not been warm enough to tempt visitors out on to the beach. It ought to be remembered that even the Junkanoo had to be postponed on account of the rain. In addition to this, having to pay high seasonal surcharges gives rise to further frustration.
The ethics of the Bahamians leaves something to be desired
Fuhrmann agrees with the tourist minister Wilchcombe that a great deal has to be done as a matter of urgency to make a visit to Nassau more attractive. Instead of Caribbean culture, all the old part of Nassau has to offer is in fact the T shirts from Taiwan in a shoddy back street market or other imported goods on sale for US Dollars in a shop catering for tourists. On the two-lane Baystreet leading eastwards, there is an unbearable stench of car exhaust fumes, free of charge. When thousands of day-trippers are summoned back for dinner on the cruise ships then Baystreet does not revert to normal, but a deathly silence prevails. Wilchcombe also criticises the dirty side streets. As a result some side streets are to be converted into a pedestrian zone. And it is possible that tourists are to be provided with a range of cultural activities where today there isnﾴt a single steel band to be heard and where you canﾴt see a limbo dancer on any street corner. However, Wilchcombe is not making any statements as to how the traffic problem of the old part of Nassau, which would then be even worse, can be solved.
However, travel journalists and travel agency representatives also ought to direct close attention to those whom the tourist ministry calls “friendly locals”, because those who speak of Bahamians as actually being friendly may in many cases be mistaken. Fuhrmann describes the situation as follows: Bahamians only pretend to be friendly towards tourists for as long as they can be certain that they expect to benefit from the holidaymakers. And it is really true that “friendly” lawyers fail to respond to telephone calls, letters and fax messages, delay taking legal action in the courts on behalf of foreigners or simply do not appear at court hearings, “friendly” public prosecutors ignore all enquiries in spite of the promises they have made; it is true that a “sympathetic” minister of justice endorses such conduct, and that over and beyond that, even the prime minister feigns ignorance, although in public he admonishes his ministers to adhere to ethical standards of conduct. In the meantime, Bahamas Consult is warning tourists and foreign investors of the low moral standards that are to be expected in the Bahamas.
Even if they resort to being superficially polite, according to what Fuhrmann has to say, it is increasingly being observed for example that the Bahamans lack the common courtesy that ought to be shown when dealing with foreigners. “Such behaviour has to be labelled as primitive and as a result it is completely jeopardising the Bahamas as a destination for tourists and investors”. This is why Bahamas Consult has taken the occasion of the 25th Caribbean Tourism Conference to publish the new homepage www.focusbahamas.net.tc through its editorial office “Bahamas-inside”, which is designed to give an overview of the topics of crime, the widespread dealing in drugs, dangers for tourism, widespread corruption, extremely high murder rates in the Bahamas etc. from various internet publications. These issues are also the topics on the agenda of a workshop at the event in Freeport on the 29th October.
