Image is important to a country that thrives on tourism, so the ministry of tourism is backing a Kerzner International sponsored project designed to enhance the East Bay Street side of the two bridges linking New Providence and Paradise Island.
In another few years, the green spaces will have a distinctly aesthetic appeal. At least that is what Kerzner International and Ministry of Tourism officials are aiming for through a new landscaping project.
The three pronged project will take about three years to complete and is expected to cost over $300,000.
Atlantis Vice President of Public Affairs Ed Fields says it’s an expansion of another Kerzner People’s Park civic project.
“We think that it will obviously improve this area dramatically,” he said. “We have said that over the next three years as an extension of our parks programme we will spend our efforts on beautifying the East Bay area specifically that goes from the former police station to the exit for Potter’s Cay.”
For the Ministry of Tourism, it’s another part of a larger plan to enhance key touristic sites like Bay Street, Cable Beach and the main ports of entry, according to Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe.
He called the initiative a tremendous one that is going to transform the green spaces.
“We want to ensure on a daily basis that we present to the world a first class product and if it is not first class and first rate the problem is we lose some of the mystique, some of the imagery of the Bahamas that we wish the world to capture,” Minister Wilchcombe said.
“This is particularly important for the further growth and development and beauty of New Providence and of course for touristic development,” he added. Right now the foot of the bridges do not have that much appeal. But it’s something that Enviroscape, the landscaping company contracted by Kerzner International, is working to change.
The company undertook a landscaping project for the foot of the newer Paradise Island bridge in 1995. Workmen project that the new project will be labour intensive.
“With the rate of tourists in this country we need to have areas that look very good and are well maintained. It is very important for the results of our country,” Aubrey Kemp of Enviroscape said. “Once we get this landscaped we are going to come in on a daily basis and maintain it; keep all the trash out and all the garbage off the lawns and everything.”
The first phase of the project is intended to be completed by June.
The Kerzner sponsored project is being undertaken at a time when Ministry of Tourism officials are focusing renewed attention on the country’s appearance to the millions of visitors that find sanctuary in the Islands of the Bahamas.
By Yvette Rolle-Major, The Bahama Journal
