The Tribune

By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

TWELVE “non-essential” persons have been recalled from tourism offices in the United States, according to Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar, who said the move will save the government $1m annually.

Speaking to The Tribune, Mr D’Aguilar said the Washington and Los Angeles offices have been “amalgamated” into the New York and Houston offices respectively. He said the market has changed and the government cannot do business as usual.

“Okay, so let’s be clear, the offices have not been closed, they have been amalgamated into other offices,” Mr D’Aguilar said. “When we came in, it was my mandate to look throughout the system and see where it is we can save money. So in the United States, we have recalled 12 persons we considered to be non-essential.

“What they were doing can be done here at a cheaper rate because we will not have to pay for housing and travel. So those persons are being brought back to Nassau. We haven’t looked at the offices outside of the US yet but in the US, there was a review and this is what happened. “We reviewed the functions of those persons and then considered our mandate, which is to sell the Bahamas and grow stop over visitors and some persons did not fit into what we need.”

Mr D’Aguilar said the model of tourism has changed therefore the Ministry of Tourism cannot continue to “maintain the status quo.”

“In some instances we had to decide the purpose of these offices, we know what they did in the past, but what is the purpose now. We had to make tough decisions,” he said.

“In the past, we were dealing with travel agents. Persons used agents to book trips and so we had relationships with agents but that model has changed. People purchase their vacations online and so if you are going to market the nation, you do not need to physically have those persons in the US. Times are changing so we cannot maintain the status quo, we cannot spend the people’s money frivolously. Now with this move, we can save on allowances.”

In an earlier interview with Tribune Business, Mr D’Aguilar warned that there will be “some casualties” and Bahamians will have to suffer “some pain before gain” as the Minnis administration tries to combat the growing fiscal crisis.

He said the government has no choice but to “right size the ship” following the Christie administration’s “orgy of spending” prior to the May 10 general election.