Yahoo Travel’s Worst Caribbean Cruise Ports of Call

OUR TOURISM IS STALE, REACTIONARY, UNFOCUSED and DYING – We have a choice: we can do as CIA officials are doing in the US, trying to defend AGAINST THE OBVIOUS, refusing to admit and learn lessons from failure, or we can admit that our tourism in The Bahamas has not evolved, is not “cutting edge”, lacks innovation and is driven largely by a hunt for numbers rather than quality of experience. For those who feel that ache in their solar plexus that pushes them to defend a political party, these facts have little to do with the current Minister or the Administration now in power. All governments of The Bahamas have failed at tourism, because our very concept of it is an inverse plantation model. Professor Ian Strachan’s book (http://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Plantation-Tourism-Anglophone-Caribbean/dp/0813921473) outlines with intellectual insight and not without brilliance, the implications of our default model of tourism. I am constantly shocked and saddened that not a single Minister of Tourism or Tourism official has used Dr. Strachan’s thesis as a baseline for a new model. (The buildings of monster hotels is a sign of our cultural emptiness). It is our tendency to have no reaction to idea; as ideas have no career in crony nations where systems are held in place for the sake of last dollar-chasing, economic-pie-shrinking lackeys. If we have a reaction it will be because now foreigners have condemned our tourism product, or lack thereof. In that case, we are likely – as is our habit – to attempt to reform our touristic model “for” tourists. That would be a mistake revealing our continued disregard that leaves us discounting our own people. First understand: I do not think tourism would be our first or second or even third industry if The Bahamas were organised according to its actual potential. Second, even so, the only means to bypass tourism as the number one industry, is to reform and deepen it, maximising its potential, so that we diversify our economy from our current core business model. The only foundation for innovation is: TO MAKE THE BAHAMAS MORE BEAUTIFUL FOR BAHAMIANS. That is, if we want a tourism beyond just higher and higher numbers of gawking t-shirt buyers who get drunk at Senor Frogs, our concept must begin on the foundation that tourists should come to enjoy The Bahamas we enjoy; organised and designed for us to enjoy. Trying to develop a “good Bahamas” for tourists, in the midst of a “bad Bahamas” that is a corrupt, crime-ridden, inefficient, overtaxed backward educational failure is NONSENSE from the start. (If you are hyperventilating in defence of your political party, I recommend VAT 19 at this point). At the outside, we must deal with crime, habitual slaughter, educational failure, red-tape and inefficiencies; which are many. The rethinking of our tourist model does not begin with downtown Nassau. It begins with Over-The-Hill and in outlying cultural zones like Clifton and a heightened highlighted importance of San Salvador and Acklins. Every, old style Bahamian building across the country ought to be catalogued and preserved. This process alone would reveal much that is missing in our everyday understanding of ourselves. Art, sculpture and monuments should be used to bring the hidden history of these zones into view. Modern developments, in the South and West of New Providence, highlighting the technical and creative prowess of Bahamians should be constructed (including galleries, technical exhibitions, creative centres and urban spaces of consummate cool). (This may have been a better use of the resources of Bank of The Bahamas). Next, Nassau is our historical capital, and there are financial models available for coordinating public and private property interests to ensure the development of a high cultural experience in the City of Nassau. (It is shocking that it is named for William of Orange-Nassau a Dutch Prince, when by comparison his country – The Netherlands – is supremely better organised than our city named for him. (But again ideas have no career amongst us). This city should be incorporated, and managed by a Municipal Authority. An Arts and Cultural League (constituted by designers, architects, civil engineers and artists), should work to redesign Nassau to bring its deep historical significance to the forefront. (This means getting rid of the “Straw-market” and emphasising instead the Pompey Museum, fully developed,for instance). It means creating a residential zone for 3,000 persons (which I would have initiated had I been able to buy the British Colonial Hilton years ago). A Boardwalk should run from the cruise port to the bridge. And we need an over pass road, rising up over the city, with land designed for parking buildings to absorb congestion from the streets. When we live our history and culture, we will have more to offer the world beyond crime, “Senor Frogs and a few overpriced shops”.