[ Home ]  [ Feedback ]

Vacation in the Caribbean:

The Bahamas could become

insignificant as a destination

As usual every country express great optimism for the year ahead. But addressing government and key industry partners at the first annual National Tourism Conference, being held in January 2004 at the Wyndham Nassau Resort and Crystal Palace Casino, Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie said the Bahamas must offer visitors greater value for their money in order to prevent the further loss of market share to competitors.

The three growth markets in the Caribbean are the Dominican Republic, Cancun and Cuba confirmed Bahamas Mr. Christie at the opening of the first national forum to discuss problems and strategies in the Bahamas tourism industry. Cuba might begin to open up after the mid-term presidential elections in 2004, and could make Cuba soon the alternative traveling and boating destination of choice.

It is well known that competitors have been able to gain an edge on the Bahamas since years by offering better attitudes and higher level of service. Tourists demand cheaper vacations and claim wide spread crime which goes along with corruption, drug trafficking and high murder rate in the Island of The Bahamas.

Bahamas Consult does not agree with Perry Christie, who explained that competitors can offer more reasonable vacations “because they pay their workers less than we do". Harald Fuhrmann, Directing Manager of Bahamas Consult, reminds that the tourist satisfaction is very low. Specially in Nassau tourists stay on board of their cruise ships in the evenings because there they get more fun than what locals are willing to offer. They like the cruise, they like the buffet on board and they prefere the entertainment on board because Nassau downtown after 7 pm is dead.

Tourists from America and Canada are becoming more and more aware that they are not getting value for money. 5 star hotel rates, for 3 star accommodations, will not generate repeat custom. And high taxi rates rates, for old vehicles and sometimes without aircondition, will not generate repeat custom either.

Bahamas bulletin boards became a important part of the travel industry is a problem and a conflict of interests between potential tourists on the one side and the whole industry on the other side. The Bahamas government pushed more and more boards to get monitored. The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism published 2003 her new website bahamas.com and removed the bulletin board because there was a increase of negative comments about vacation in the Bahamas.

Highlighting the discrepancy between advertising statements in investment profiles and the real difficulties in the investment business, Bahamas Consult issues a Investment Warning for those who want to invest. They pointed out that the quality of services offered by some Bahamian service agencies, particularily attorneys, does not always live up to the client's quality and service expectations. Bahamas Consult has, for some time, criticized the knowledge, experience and unfriendly attitudes towards foreigners.

2003 was the most horrible year in the Bahamas due to the fear of rising crime has become too great factor in daily life and the largest missing persons investigation ever to be recorded in Bahamian history. Five school-aged boys on Grand Bahama went missing without a trace, testing the metal of authorities and forcing the country out of its social comfort zones. The first boy, Jake Grant, disappeared from home on May 9^th . Soon to follow that month was Mackinson Colas and then DeAngelo McKenzie.  

The country feared the worst. Two months later Junior Reme and Desmond Rolle went missing and soon frightened parents wondered whose child would be next. Rumors of the boys' whereabouts abounded, but after months of investigations which reached international proportions, 35-year-old Cordell Farrington, a hardware store clerk, turned himself into police and led authorities to the remains of Grand Bahama's fallen sons. He was also charged with killing his former friend, Jamaal Robbins. Four juveniles were charged two weeks earlier in the disappearance of Jake Grant.

Already on January 1, the New Year's Day revelry also took a violent turn. That day, 29-year-old Anthony Dean was shot to death. It was the first of more than 50 murders in the Bahamas for the year and put a damper on hopes that violent crimes would show some abatement.

In early April, the spotlight was placed on the National AIDS programme when former U.S. President Bill Clinton visited the Bahamas on a mission to save lives. The former president, addressing a national youth rally said the Bahamas was carrying the hopes of the world in its fight against the disease. Mr. Clinton urged the Bahamas to help ensure that a projection made by experts that there will be 100 million people living with AIDS by the end of the decade never materializes.

By the end of 2003, health officials released new figures on AIDS, which showed that the numbers of children orphaned by the disease climbed significantly since 1998.  As of June 2003, there has been a cumulative total of  9,593 HIV infections in the Bahamas.

On June 5, former U.S. Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship announced his resignation, saying only that he was returning to the private sector and his business interests in Florida. He also left saying that he was departing at a time when the bilateral relationship between the United States and the Bahamas was on its most firm footing ever.

Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell at the time declined to address the relationship between Mr. Blankenship and the Government of the Bahamas. Speculation was rife in political circles regarding the resignation. But this was something that Minister Mitchell refused to feed into.  During his term of Ambassador to the Bahamas, Mr. Blankenship had been embroiled in controversy, with Minister Mitchell even accusing him at one point of threatening the country's dignity. Mr. Blankenship's resignation became effective July 18.

Another story of the year was a “Death Boat” desaster. Four people died during an boat accident near Eluthera/Bahamas and more than 20 were injured when the 98-foot Sea Hauler, said to have been carrying 196 passengers and seven crew, collided with the 178-foot freighter, UnitedStar, at August 2nd. The second vessel was carrying 11 people as well as vehicles and other cargo. Sea Hauler was licensed to carry only 130 passengers and did not have life vests and life-boats for emergencies. Captain Allen Russell even did not lists of passengers, crew and cargo on board.

This happened just a short time after Rev. Dozier John Michel and his wife had just picked up their son and nephew from the Eleuthera Express Mailboat and were heading back around the bend in their car when it plunged off the dock. The son was the only survivor of that terrifying ordeal. It wasn't the first time that due to poor safety standards at Paradise Island Bridge a vehicle had careened off the pier ending fatally.

It was May 2003 when Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie made his much-anticipated budget communication to parliament with the 2003-2004 budget projecting an overall funding shortfall of $122 million which would raise the government debt by 2.2 percent to 38.7 percent of GDP. Mr. Christie announced that in the new fiscal year, the government would start a programme of measures to contain the deficit and gradually eliminate it over a reasonable period of time. It was also revealed that the government intended to collect more than $1 billion in revenue.

60 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – which is about $3 billion (drug trafficking not included) – comes from tourism related activities. The Bahamas profits from its location specially – starting 50 miles off the coast of South Florida and stretching as far south as Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Highlighting the discrepancy between advertising statements in travel brochures and the real dangers in vacation destinations, the U.S. Department of State has issued not only once a Travel Warning. The US Embassy in Nassau explains that crime and drug trafficking have increased to such a level that it is necessary to officially inform specially younger tourists about the bad conditions they may encounter in the island nation.

[News 2003]  [Map of the Bahamas]  [Bahamas Links]  [Travel warning]  [Investment warning]  [Bahamas in Brief]  [About the Bahamas]

Send mail to consult@the-bahamas.de with questions or comments about this website. Copyright © Bahamas Consult