By NOELLE NICOLLS
Tribune Features Editor
nnicolls@tribunemedia.net
THE last time I visited Cat Island, I explored the exclusive peninsula on the north-west coast known as Pigeon Cay. Luxury homes dot the shoreline of Pigeon Cay, overlooking a beautiful inland creek and mangrove system as well as a stunning stretch of white sand beach.
Some of the views from Pigeon Cay are indeed enviable. Unsurprisingly, when you ask local Cat Islanders the question, how many Bahamians own property in Pigeon Cay, chirping crickets can be heard above the feedback.
No doubt, the homes that line the beach in Pigeon Cay, like similar developments across the islands of the Bahamas – South Bar in Harbour Island, Windermere Island in Eleuthera – account for a large amount of leakage in the Bahamian economy. The leakage comes from the rental of these private homes to transient guests as a hotel would do.
Unlike licensed hotel properties, these developments do not benefit from the concessions provided for under the Hotel Encouragement Act, such as being promoted by the Ministry of Tourism and the tourism promotion boards.
However, the lack of access to such allowances is of little consequence, particularly in an Internet age.
The law governing owner occupied rental homes does not seem to be enforced, and appears to be implemented in a discretionary way, at best. The end result on all accounts is leakage. In fact, the One Eleuthera organization quantifies the leakage from private rentals to the local Eleuthera economy at $25 million.
The government boasts of great benefits derived by the second home industry, and yet they have no words to speak of the leakage that slips out of the economy as a result of this economic model.
While some Bahamians may examine this scenario and instinctively criticize the way in which foreigners steal opportunity from Bahamians, the thought that comes to mind when I look at this scenario is, if I had money I would surely build myself a nice second home on one of the Family Islands and rent it out just the same.
Beyond their desire to have a place of retreat in paradise, the foreigners who purchase second homes in the Bahamas are clearly clued into a lucrative business market that is prime for providing a supplementary income to anyone with the means to clear the bar of entry.
My question: why don’t more Bahamians get in the game, or at the very least, aspire to be in the game? Why are we so blind to the potential of a domestic market for second home ownership? The answer will also explain how Bahamians perceive, or rather fail to see, domestic tourism in general as an economic piston for the Bahamian economy.
Yes, we can always find something to complain about in relation to what the foreigners are doing or the government is not doing, but we need to invest more of our energy in asking the question, what are we doing? Could a vibrant domestic tourism industry provide stability to the Bahamian economy? Could it help the Family Islands to truly develop? Could it create economic wealth for the Bahamian people?
I might not have the economic data to prove so (if the data even exists), but my gut tells me yes, particularly with the development of the Family Islands. After all, the Family Islands are not being served by traditional tourism.
Tourism in the Bahamas, despite its privileged place in our economic consciousness, has not delivered on the promise of widespread wealth creation and it has not resulted in true development for the Family Islands. Yes, it has created jobs; yes, it has created a lot of wealth for a small group of private business interests; and yes, it has bankrolled the government to a large extent; but it has not lived up to the hype. If you listen to the stories of elders in some of the islands, they will tell you that as far as tourism goes, there has been negative growth in the islands ever since the industry was made mass market.
Although there has been a vast amount of Bahamianisation when it comes to resort ownership, there are only a handful of truly profitable properties in each island. Many hoteliers are merely subsisting, and have been for some time. Their rooms are filled two, three times a year, when regatta or homecoming comes around.
Amongst the Bahamian-owned resorts, the reality is, black Bahamian hoteliers in particular are feeding on crumbs. In fact, many of these hoteliers have become so resigned to the lack of opportunity that their hotel operations are just another thing that they do, along with farming, fishing, police work, church ministry or the dozen or so other jobs and businesses they may be responsible for.
This is partly why the Bahamas Out Island Promotion Board (BOIPB) has struggled for so long to increase its membership across the islands.
Hoteliers simply do not see the benefits trickling down and they would rather rough it out on their own than fatten someone else’s pocket.
Although many of the BOIPB members are the stronger performing properties, their success is perceived as deriving from other factors not their BOIPB membership. The non-member hotels simply do not buy into the promise.
There is no question, tourism is benefiting some, but our pigeonhole view of the industry has us spinning wheels, failing to address the needs of those who are not getting any of the pie. The Family Islands have been starving for some time.
If anything, our one-track train which sees foreign direct investment and large scale development as the end all and be all is creating a false sense of prosperity. Eleuthera, for example, is a graveyard of failed and floundering tourism developments along this model: Club Med folded and reopened as French Leave; Sigatoo Quality Inn is up for sale; the Cove changed hands and was renovated; Cape Eleuthera Resort changed ownership and is now selling out units; Coco Di Mama was bought out and is now being resuscitated by a group of Bahamian investors; the Potlatch Club sits in ruins; and the list goes on and on. One Eleuthera resident claims there are upward to 14 developments that fit this bill. Eleuthera is no shabby destination, and yet you can see not all is well in paradise.
In New Providence, the Atlantis Resort has likewise created a façade of opportunity, and Baha Mar will do the same. We are swayed to believe that what is in the best interest of these private developers is naturally in
the best interest of the Bahamian people, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Certainly, from a macro perspective, the success of Atlantis and Baha Mar is good for the Bahamian economy and good for its employees, especially the elite members like the Baha Mar “Dream Team”. But there is no automatic trickle down on the micro level. And the impact on the wider family of islands is negligible. In fact, the impact is moreso adverse.
From a pure business perspective, Atlantis would do very well if its guests never left the bounds of its property. And to some extent its Disney World-like product offering is designed to achieve such a result, so it
would be foolhardy to believe that Atlantis’ business objectives are one and the same with our national development interests, notwithstanding the areas of common concern.
While its geographic position in the Bahamas is critical to establishing its physical location, Atlantis’ association with a deeper sense of Bahamian identity is important only to the extent that it allows the property a means of expressing a sense of place. Take stock of an Atlantis television commercial: Atlantis promotes Atlantis as the destination, not the Bahamas.
Not even from an identity perspective does Atlantis’ interest align with our own. When you look at it, what about the property – the gaudiness, the fake rocks, fake beaches, fake waterfalls, fake dolphin habitat, the cosmetic cultural appropriation – is really Bahamian? There are symbolic correlations, primarily with our natural environment, but does Atlantis truly represent the Bahamian identity? I think not. At best, Atlantis is a larger-than-life representation of the hyper inflated Bahamian ego.
From a business perspective, however, none of that matters. For business is a simple math game, unfazed by political ambition. There is a market for what Sol Kerzner created with his highly imaginative and business savvy mind. And so long as there is a market, there will be Disney World in the Bahamas.
What if we could step for just a moment off the waterwheel and look beyond the charms of foreign direct investment and the vision of a Bahamian Riviera; what if we could look into ourselves and see the power we possess to change the game.
I always thought one of the casualties of the last general election was the still birth of the “Return the Islands Initiative” exposed by the Free National Movement (FNM). I make no claims as to how genuine the FNM was in its proposal or how capable it would have been in its implementation (as I usually make clear, I am a political cynic), but the idea itself was a good one.
We do need a back to the islands movement and we need it badly: New Providence is over-populated while the Family Islands are badly under-populated; there are no economies of scale in the Family Islands, which adds to the cost of doing business there; businesses are badly in need of modernization, which requires an influx of young blood and modern services; there is a lack of transparency and accountability in the administration of island affairs which breeds nepotism, corruption and inefficiency; there are business opportunities to be pursued; there is money on the ground; there are skills to be learned; history to be documented; and wisdom to be imparted; and last but not least, there are islands to discover and explore just for the pure enjoyment of it. We need to bring our sleepy little Family Island towns back to life and perhaps a domestic tourism industry has the power to help turn things around.
We see ourselves not as tourists when we visit the islands, but as going to see family or going for a party. But what if instead of going to Miami multiple times a year, Bahamians visited the islands, or added an extra trip to the islands each year for vacation? What if we celebrated birthdays and anniversaries by treating ourselves to a vacation in the islands? What if we held executive retreats on the islands? What if high school students went on graduation trips to the islands?
What if we owned second homes, time shares, condos in the islands? What if we returned to the islands and brought life to the ghost towns that we left behind? What if we migrated to the islands instead of away from them? What if we invested in the islands instead of depleting resources from them?
What if we could replicate the success derived from domestic travel during regattas and homecomings at different times during the year? Business booms in the islands during regatta time. Sky Bahamas had 18 flights per day to Cat Island for the Rake and Scrape Festival this summer. “That place sank with Bahamians,” said Randy Butler, president of Sky Bahamas and a domestic tourist.
“I don’t go on vacation anywhere other than the Bahamas. I have a two year old. I have to go to do Disney World, and I haven’t reached yet,” said Mr Butler, who also owns the Andros Island Beach Resort.
What if we started enjoying our country more? What if we starting exploring our country more? What if we started buying what we sell to the tourists?
Think about it, we have built an entire economy around selling a product that we hardly utilize ourselves, much less know intimately and appreciate.
Many Bahamians have the view about the islands that you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.
Many Bahamians cannot swim, which means they have not experienced a large part of who we are. Many Bahamians have no knowledge of our indigenous traditions: grinding corn, baking flour cake in a stone oven, rambling and beating cascarilla, making lime from conch shells in a native kiln, rope making, boat building, sloop sailing and the list goes one.
Essentially, we are selling a product that we are clueless about and do not buy into. And I firmly believe if we could solve this problem, it would create a greater sense of ownership, a greater sense of pride, and it would create new opportunities for the Bahamian people.
As fatigued as we are about the sun, sand and sea message that dominates our global marketing, the reality is, we do have beaches that make you stand in awe of creation. We have a depth of water visibility that seems unreal. But you might not appreciate just how special this is unless you have been to the Joulters, Sandy Cay or the Exumas. And within the realm of natural wonders, the beaches and the ocean depths are only one dimension of our awesomeness.
Anyone who thinks they know the Bahamas is surely mistaken. Believe it or not, it could take multiple lifetimes to truly get to know the Bahamas, which provides ample enough opportunity for us to explore within our own lifetimes.
A true return to the islands could greatly improve the quality of our lives, if not help improve the economy. And there is hope; I only have anecdotal evidence, which is prejudiced because several of the sample subjects are family members, but it seems like a generation of young professionals is already clued into the opportunity. They are island hopping throughout the islands, and some of them are migrating in search of business opportunities.
To make the change, I believe it is well within our power to do a few things: teach every Bahamian child to swim, and use our beaches as swimming pools to accomplish such a task; build boarding schools in the Family Islands instead of ordinary secondary or all age schools to replicate on a small scale the effect of college campuses in major cities; market the Bahamas to Bahamians; micro target domestic consumers for relevant travel related business and services; create a small business modernization initiative in the islands; improve the infrastructure to support local businesses; incentivize second home ownership in the Family Island for Bahamians.
On a wider scale we need to bring down the cost to travel to and within the islands. “It is more expensive to go to Cat Island than Miami something is desperately wrong,” said Mr Butler. “Hotel prices are really expenses. A taxi is way too expensive,” he said.
While there is some work for the government to do in all of this, a true back to the island initiative is much bigger than anything the government could muster. It requires the private sector, civil society, and above all, a change in the mindset of the Bahamian people. We need to start seeing ourselves and our islands differently and think about what we can do to create a better quality of life and prosperity for our people.
For questions or comments, email nnicolls@tribunemedia.net.
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