The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

MARATHON Bahamas organisers are planning to implement a “bolder vision” for the event that goes far beyond “increasing hotel room nights by 5-10 per cent”.

Sir Franklyn Wilson told Tribune Business that Sunshine Insurance had received sufficient feedback to make it believe the annual race could help position “brand Bahamas” as the best running experience in the world.

Emphasising that the Bahamas could never match the annual New York, London and Boston marathons in terms of size, Sir Franklyn said organisers planned to place the emphasis on the experience of running by a tropical seafront as Marathon Bahamas heads towards its 10th anniversary in 2019.

“Doing the numbers [from this year], it’s apparent that the Marathon continues to grow,” the businessman told this newspaper. “But to me the take away from this year’s Marathon is a much bigger story. “We have decided to move towards a bolder vision as to what we are trying to do. The Bahamas is a small country. There are very few instances where we can claim to be the best in the world at anything, other than when our athletes win an Olympic Gold. “I’m saying to you that the vision we have now is to spread the awareness that Marathon Bahamas provides the best marathon experience in the world.”

Sir Franklyn said such sentiments had been “sporadically” expressed to Sunshine Insurance previously, but a pick-up in such views from participants and positive reviews from running and athletics magazines had led organisers to believe that attaining such a reputation is possible. “We believe it to be a worthy goal for the country,” he told Tribune Business.

“We can’t be the biggest; London, New York and Boston have bigger budgets. But the experience of running......”

Sir Franklyn said some overseas runners had informed him they reached the Marathon Bahamas start-line within 20 minutes of getting out of bed, compared to the two hours it would take at a major marathon, something he described as “a huge difference”.

“This year we added a band playing local Bahamian music,” he added. “I was there when a lady from a Far Eastern country, who half an hour previously said she didn’t know if she could walk again, was dancing to the band having relaxed and dipped in the sea.

“We are going past this mission of trying to increase room nights 5-10 per cent per year, whatever it is, for this far deeper vision where, as part of ‘brand Bahamas’, this becomes the best place for running in the world for the marathon experience. That’s our mantra. That’s where we’re headed. 

“You’re running in the sunshine. You’re running around where you never go five minutes before you see the sea. You’re getting the Bahamian hospitality. These are experiences you don’t necessarily get in the bigger marathons,” Sir Franklyn added.

“This is about building the common good, this broader vision. It’s real and achievable. If we work towards it, that will be what the world is saying.”

Sir Franklyn said Marathon Bahamas had proven itself as a sustainable annual event over a decade when numerous similar initiatives had started and failed to last.

With Baha Mar’s opening providing extra room inventory and promotional clout, Sir Franklyn said he was positive the economic impact from Marathon Bahamas’ 2018 version was greater than in prior years.