It’s generally abuzz with excited tourists eager to see what The Bahamas has to offer.
Since opening its doors six weeks ago, Festival Place, the tourism welcome centre situated at Prince George’s wharf receives up to 21,000 people on peak days when as many as seven cruise ships berth at Nassau Harbour.
But there are some complaints from the vendors of the 46 stalls located in Festival Place. Thelma Miller who runs a crafts stall said that there are too many open exits at the centre and it allows too many people to leave the centre without seeing all of the items on offer at each of the stalls.
Anastacia Charlow of “Island Dis and Dat” agrees that some changes could be made but she says that every tenant housed in Festival Place should be proud as Bahamians.
“We finally have a home…a permanent home where things Bahamian can be featured…authentically Bahamian and not just with “Bahamian placed on it,” she said.
Ms. Charlow suggested that officials look at encouraging a “continuous flow” at the Welcome Centre.
“This is Festival Place, tourists should walk through here before they go anywhere else,” she said.
Garth Nash who works for Completely Nuts, a dried fruit and nuts distributor said that business is up and down with most of their business taking place in the morning.
He said that more Bahamians need to be aware of the facilities at the welcome centre and that they should patronise it.
One of the issues of contention for some people at Festival Place is the taxi call-up system.
There are complaints that some taxi drivers violate the system and collect tourists from unauthorised points. But overall, drivers feel that the cruise ship industry has been a lifesaver particularly in the wake of the war in Iraq. Michael Knowles, a taxi driver told the Bahama Journal that “we are blessed” and that a business is not bad but it could be better.
He said he was grateful for the cruise industry. “If it wasn’t for the cruise ships, we would have been in a serious predicament. The cruise ships are keeping bread on a lot of the taxi drivers’ tables,” Mr. Knowles said.
He also said that although there may be some problems with the taxi call-up system for the most part, taxi drivers are conforming to the rules.
But with so many people in an enclosed environment there are inevitably major security challenges, particularly in times of war and terrorism.
Captain Anthony Allens Comptroller of the Port Authority said that although stringent security measures have been put in place and they conduct random searches, he emphasised that security measures are implemented without compromising the tourists’ experience.
We want them [tourists] to feel free to roam and not be confined..but at the same time we have to ensure that we safeguard ourselves from persons that are up to no good,” he said.
Juanita Carey manager of Festival Place said that things have been going very well although she admits that a few things need to be fine tuned.
She said that the whole objective is to make tourists experience better.
Mrs. Carey noted that tourists who have been to The Bahamas on cruise ships before have commented favourably on the newly opened Festival place.
“People have said to us that this is a real improvement on what we had before,” she said.
She is hoping that tourists like Brenda Anderson who is a return cruise visitor from Atlanta would spread the good news by word of mouth.
“I think it’s nice..it gives you a better idea as to what is on offer here,” she said.
By Julian Reid, The Bahama Journal
