People to People volunteers are being urged to use their influence on visitors to counteract negative perceptions of The Bahamas in light of the recent stabbing of an American spring breaker.
John Carey, parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, while officially opening the latest People to People workshop at SuperClubs Breezes on Friday, updated programme volunteers on the stabbing incident that was reported in Florida by Fox News.
The Ministry of Tourism had made an effort to make the visitor feel comfortable and secure after his stabbing, included bearing the cost of the spring breaker's transportation back to the United States and his train ticket returning him to his home city.
However, all the 'good deeds of The Bahamas' representatives were lost in the "negatives" of the press coverage, Mr. Carey pointed out.
"Everything to accommodate him, even (arranging) taking his train back to Connecticut, I ﾠthink, means nothing to the people who saw that report, he said.
Mr Carey presented the incident to illustrate that "When you do something good, people ﾠtalk. When you do something bad, they talk more."
However, he urged the People to People volunteers to use their meetings with visitors as opportunities to earn positive reports and recommendations for the Bahamas. Those reports, he hoped, would counteract some of the unflattering reports that can affect the image of the country.
Visitors who have the People to People experience should always spread the type of positive stories about The Bahamas that would be invaluable publicity, Mr Carey said. After 30 years of operation,
People to People now has 600 active volunteers – 150 in New Providence, 250 in Grand Bahama and 200 in the Family Islands. Although the Ministry of Tourism would like to increase participation in the program, volunteers will continue to be carefully selected, said Janet Cuffie, senior manager responsible for People to People.
"My view is, if we have 50 qualified volunteers, that is fine," Ms. Cuffie said. "But what we need is more diversity of volunteers."
Ms Cuffie said a definite goal of the programme is to expand participation from visitors. The aim is to increase participation by at least 30 per cent this year. In Nassau, visitor participation
increased from 1,198 in 2001 to 1,309 in 2005. However, last year's participation was a slight decline from the 1,470 in 2004 since several tea parties had to be cancelled for various reasons.
Ms Cuffie said effective publicity will be important in increasing the number of visitors who take part in a People to People event. As a result, coordinators are will be taking advantage of several publicity opportunities. One of them will be making more information available and increasingly interactive on the internet. Approximately 80 per cent of visitors' requests for People to People hostings come through the internet, Ms. Cuffie said.
Source: The Tribune
