The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The National Art Gallery has increased annual visitor numbers more than six-fold within three years, its director telling a nation urgently seeking new tourism markets: “Heritage comes first.”

Amanda Coulson, in a presentation to the Bahamas Business Outlook Conference that has otherwise attracted little media attention, suggested this nation could both unlock new visitor markets and an entire economic sector by repositioning as an “arts and cultural destination”.

She said Miami’s South Beach district, once blighted by crime and poverty, was one city to undergo such a successful rebranding - and it was now reaping the economic benefits.

A prime example was the annual Art Basel event, the world’s leading modern and contemporary art exhibition, which Ms Coulson said attracted 70,000 high-end visitors to the Miami/South Beach area over a five-day period.

The exhibition also sent hotel occupancies in the Miami-Dade and Broward County areas skyrocketing for that week and, while not suggesting the Bahamas could host an event of the same magnitude, Ms Coulson hinted it could enjoy similar economic spin-offs.

She described culture as “one of the leading industries in the world, and one we’re not exploiting as much as we could”.

While the Bahamas was “moving in the right direction”, following UNESCO’s designation of Nassau as a cultural centre, the National Art Gallery director said it needed to be much more organised to realise its ‘orange economy’ potential.

With studies suggesting that 5.7 million US jobs had been created by the arts and cultural economy, Ms Coulson said this translated into the equivalent of 6,000 Bahamian jobs when the two countries’ respective sizes were accounted for.

She added that visitors were seeking authentic Bahamian culture and history during their vacations, two aspects of the visitor experience that have often been painfully lacking. Enhancing these characteristics and, in doing so, the visitor experience, could pave the way for increased per capita tourist spending.

Ms Coulson said the Historic Charles Towne Association was founded in 2013 to achieve just that. With members drawn from the business community and local organisations, it aims to “preserve, encourage and interpret community interest in historic areas”.

Its key focus is showcasing the history and culture in the area that lies just south of the British Colonial Hilton, and immediately west of Government House.

Referring to the plans by the British Colonial Hilton’s new Chinese owner to construct a new luxury condo-tel immediately adjacent to the existing property, Ms Coulson said: “Visitors are going to need Bahamian culture, and we have it right up the hill.”

The Historic Charles Towne Association’s name is a deliberate connection to Charleston in Virginia, which Ms Coulson said “turned itself around through cultural rebirth”.

Its members include John Watling’s Distillery, Graycliff and the D’Aguilar Arts Foundation, and it has been working on maps for tours of the West Hill Street area that include both St Ann’s and St Mary’s churches, plus Hillside House.

Ms Coulson said other potential visitor attractions not properly exploited included the Lewis Street house where US civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, stayed with Sir Randol Fawkes. Slave cemeteries also existed in the area.

“Heritage comes first. We need to restore the beautiful buildings, take care of our heritage. That changes people’s mindsets. Upon the city changing, people’s attitudes will change,” Ms Coulson told the Business Outlook Conference.

“We’re the only Caribbean country that produces an opera. It should be being performed all the time in a theatre in downtown Nassau.”

Ms Coulson, though, said she would not attempt to stage a Bahamian version of Art Basel in Nassau “right now” because the city lacked the necessary quality infrastructure - especially smooth roads.

She suggested that Freeport might be a more appropriate venue, despite the increase in visitor numbers achieved at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas (NAGB).

“In the last three years, we’ve gone from 1,500 to over 10,000 visitors a year at the National Art Gallery,” Ms Coulson said.

Tourists, as percentage of those numbers, had fallen from 85 per cent to 55 per cent. Ms Coulson attributed the renewed local interest to initiatives such as ‘free Sunday’ admissions.

“We need the global market share to get our culture out there and make a success of it,” Ms Coulson said.

“We just need to get out there, create awareness and change behaviour. If we do, the money will come. Fine arts is where the money is at.”

She added that the Bahamas needed to identify itself through its culture, not buildings such as Atlantis or symbols such as palm trees - something numerous other countries use.