FREEPORT – Prime Minister the Right Honourable Perry Gladstone Christie told Grand Bahamians Tuesday that they no longer have the luxury of competing solely against New Providence for its share of the tourism market.
Mr. Christie touched on the massive tourism and second home developments in many of the Family Islands, which he said are designed to attract additional tourist to The Bahamas.
The nation’s leader was in Grand Bahamas participating in the 8th Annual Grand Bahama Business Outlook, sponsored by The Counsellors Limited. The event was held in the Convention Center of the Westin and Sheraton of Grand Bahama at our Lucaya.
He said that the future of Grand Bahama is entirely dependant now on the Government, the Grand Bahama Port Authority, stakeholders, and resort working very hard to once and for all make a commitment to Grand Bahama being the leisure and recreational capital of The Bahamas.
He said that there has to be an understanding that Grand Bahama is not going to beat New Providence because of the historical and cultural impact on the resort industry.
The Prime Minister stated that Grand Bahama needs a clearly defined path; it can’t say it is tourism one minute, industry the next, shipping one day, and something else later.
He said one of the greatest challenges of Grand Bahama is to redefine itself. Also that Grand Bahama needs to understand that even in tourism they are competing against destinations within the country.
Pointing to the increase in tourism in the Family Islands, Mr. Christie said there is a need to ensure that Grand Bahama has maximum returns on its efforts in the resort side, because the resort side is the largest employer.
“So it means that we have to fix Royal Oasis; and we have to ensure we work with Royal Oasis to truly define it self to be able to attract the people it has,” he said.
Also, Mr. Christie said that have to look again at Our Lucaya and their challenges. He inform those gathered that, “there are hundreds of million of dollars worth of construction about to begin again over at Port Lucaya; and that the Government has approved the construction of a new condominium unit which is also expected to get underway shortly.
Mr. Christie also touched on the development by the Ginn group and Marriott, and told the audience that the economic news for Grand Bahama has been retarded somewhat because of the three hurricanes which crushed the island over the past two years.
He said that despite the ravages, construction will continue and that already it is difficult to find contractors to work in Grand Bahama, and it will be difficult to find laborers.
While still talking about Grand Bahama’s potential and the need to concentrate more on the tourism sector, Mr. Christie pointed to the development of five major properties in Eleuthera, new undertakings in Cat Island, Exuma, Bimini, Abaco, Mayaguana, and elsewhere in Bahamas, noting that these developments in the Family Islands will also cause many Bahamians who migrated to Grand Bahama for employment opportunities to return home.
Mr. Christie noted that the Bahamian economy today is very strong and robust. He said that the External Reserves have increased to $601 million as of February 22nd 2006. Also that Domestic credit is up 1.084 billion since May 2002 and that demand deposits, savings and fixed deposits have all shown sharp increases since May 2002 when his government came to office. He also touched on the increase in tourism arrivals.
The Prime Minister also said that much focus must now come to meaningfully integrating Bahamians into the economy of The Bahamas.
According to Mr. Christie the creation of the Domestic Investment Board was to make sense of all of the avenues that the Bahamian has to travel to get into business. He touched for example on the many opportunities that still exist for Bahamians in the Fly Fishing Industry, which includes Bone Fishing.
Encouraging Bahamians to begin to invest more in a growing Bahamas, Mr. Christie also told them to “leave politics behind when you walk into an office and you are looking for opportunity.”
