By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
BAHAMAS National Film Festival Commission chairman Paul Major said yesterday that between now and May the organisation is projected to spend an estimated $5m in the local economy resulting in a projected gross domestic product (GDP) impact of just over $20m.
Mr Major, addressing the Business Outlook in Nassau yesterday, said that funds would be expended on food, retailing and merchandising, cleaning, landscaping, marketing and other work related to the Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival Festival.
“It is estimated that businesses which participate in Carnival-related activities often see increased sales of up to 100 per cent during the course of the carnival season,” Mr Major said. “In our case we determined that we will place emphasis on our indigenous culture in all of its forms, be it Junkanoo music, visual arts, performing arts, craft, cuisine and anything and everything Bahamian that one would wish to showcase.
“The key is to get everyone to appreciate that we are attempting to expand and diversify our cultural industry and in doing so diversify and expand our tourism product offering. Once this is achieved those businesses will be able to reap their just rewards.”
Mr Major said that the Bahamas National Film Festival Commission has spent $1.59m to date with a total of 214 small and medium sized local entities for an estimated GDP impact of roughly $7.96m. “We are consciously seeking to ensure that the economic benefits also accrue to our Family Islands where 10.63 per cent of our expenditure has occurred to date with much more to come,” he said. “From now through May of this year the Commission is projected to spend an estimated $5m in the local economy resulting in a projected GDP impact of $20.65m.”
According to Mr Major, empirical evidence suggests that the term ‘Carnival’ has the highest hit rate for people searching for online festivals, which is the compelling reason the word Carnival is generically used to conjure up the spirit of cultural gaiety and enjoyment.
He pointed out that Trinidad Carnival receives over 9,000 searches per month while Barbados Crop Over gets only 600 per month and Junkanoo 260. “We are endeavouring to expand and diversify our economic base by developing a cultural industry like never before seen or experienced in The Bahamas,” said Mr Major.
Comments
Economist 9 years, 2 months ago
How did the organization come to these figures, please? You are spending OUR money, so please tell us.
Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years, 2 months ago
VAT money being spent on all kind of foolishness with not a penny to spare to pay down our ever increasing National Debt! VAT needs to be repealed and the mega millions stolen by corrupt politicians and their business cronies needs to be clawed back through a series of proper investigations and prosecutions of political officials with the help of other countries in which the stolen funds have been stashed away. The U.S. Government, IMF, World Bank, WTO, IDB, S&P, Moody's and so on all know this to be the only available course that serves the interests of the Bahamian people....but it will first take Bahamian voters to rid themselves of the corrupt politicians in the three parties (PLP, FNM and DNA) thereby paving the way for much of the corruption that now exists at all of our government ministries, departments and agencies and govt corporations to be rooted out.
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