But the officials, who released the latest results in a newspaper advertisement, said they are aiming for a satisfaction rating of 95 percent. Between June and August, the data showed a rating of around 47 percent.
The information is obtained from tourists completing immigration cards and a Ministry of Tourism exit survey.
Visitors are asked to rate retail stores, taxis and local restaurant food as well as general service of persons working in the hospitality industry.
There were 7,481 respondents for the restaurant food category; 8,652 for restaurant service; and 8,470 respondents for the taxi category.
The respondents noted that not a lot of sandwiches or snack foods are available in restaurants; restaurant food is very expensive, yet quality of food served is not good; taxi rates are too high; the service people were unfriendly and most often rude; and service needs to be beefed up.
On the positive side, what they indicated showed that taxi service has generally improved; and cab drivers are friendly and very informative.
To improve the rating, tourism officials noted that food quality and prices in the airport need to be improved; public transportation also needs to be improved; the variety in restaurants in tourist areas needs to be increased; and hotel staff as well as tour and cab drivers need to provide detailed information on transportation pick-ups.
Up and about the town Monday, tourists shared their views with the Bahama Journal on their Bahamian experience.
Spring breakers along Long Wharf said while New Providence is beautiful, it is too pricey.
“I feel like the taxi drivers try to rip us of,” said one student, Alicia Dimar. “I think they [think] we are going to spend all of our money, but we are smarter than that.”
Sara Tieche, another spring breaker, charged that local restaurants raise prices during the Spring Break period.
“We came here and we are on a budget,” Ms. Tieche said. “We don’t have the ability to pay for a 15 percent increase just because they believe that we are drunk.”
But Keith Lowe, a Florida college student, said that he found some of the prices to be reasonable.
“Some places are a little bit more expensive than others,” he said. “But you can actually go to some places where you can get some cheap stuff like cheap liquor, cheap cigarettes. The Straw Market is where the real deals are.”
Josh Moyer, another visitor, called for more local entertainment.
“The locals are really nice and even if you pay more, the locals make up for it,” he said. “It is a lot of fun and I wish there were more local bands around.”
Geneva Cooper, general manager of Production and Marketing at the Ministry of Tourism, told the Bahama Journal on Monday that so far, new responses from the Ministry of Tourism survey called, “The Visitors Voice” have been good but some areas continue to do poorly.
“Service is always an issue and that is something that we constantly try to get persons to improve on,” she said. “This is one of the reasons why we make public what the tourists are saying so that persons in the industry can improve on their services.”
Ms. Cooper said the Ministry of Tourism is working on new initiatives that will help reduce the cost of doing business in the Bahamas as many persons have long complained about the country being an expensive destination.
Hotels complain all the time about how expensive it is to operate their business,” she said. “[During] the national tourism conference, there were some things that came up concerning the cost of doing business and we plan to establish a committee to look into how we can mange the cost of doing business in the industry.”
Yvette Rolle-Major, The Bahama Journal
