The Tribune

It is self-evident that tourism is an important, if not essential, part of national economies around the world. For host countries, spending by visitors boosts revenue in many sectors, creates numerous jobs and drives growth. Here in The Bahamas, as everyone knows, tourism is one of the twin pillars of the country’s economy - alongside financial services - and is, therefore, vital to the nation’s prosperity.

In the era of mass global tourism, it is generally considered the coronavirus pandemic has caused the most difficult period ever for the industry during peacetime. In 2020, tourism took the hardest hit among economic sectors as a result of the largest year-on-year reduction of global air passenger traffic in aviation history together with a contraction of the services sector involving the hospitality industry as a whole, including travel agents, hotels and other accommodation, tour guides and entertainment.

As restrictions are progressively rolled back and life slowly returns to some sort of normality, it is perhaps no surprise that tourists are gradually returning after being stuck at home for so long. But it was particularly encouraging to read the Minister of Tourism’s contribution to the recent budget debate when he made it clear the tourism sector was, indeed, now bouncing back in The Bahamas. He said almost 300,000 tourists have visited our shores so far this year, both in New Providence and the Family Islands, with hotel occupancy rates improving accordingly - and, reportedly, he called the rate of increase of visitors phenomenal.

This good news for the whole country has led to questions about what the government can do, in the face of fierce post-pandemic competition from other countries, to support and stimulate such a positive trend while looking at ways of making The Bahamas an even more attractive destination of choice.

For purposes of comparison, I found it interesting to look at what is happening in Britain, even though the scale and circumstances are vastly different, because it is another example of a country where tourism is seen as one of the country’s great success stories, with 41 million inbound visits in 2019. The industry is regarded as an economic, social and cultural asset, indirectly employing some four million people and making an economic contribution of the equivalent of about $100 billion a year pre-pandemic.

Earlier this month, the UK government, whose aim is to see a growing, dynamic and sustainable tourism sector, published its post-pandemic Tourism Recovery Plan setting out how it will assist and accelerate the process of restoring the sector. The key, according to the plan, is to find a way for a safe return to international travel while still managing COVID-19 which - as has now been generally accepted - cannot be eliminated so that people will have to learn to live with it. A major factor will be the pace and coverage of the vaccination programme and the effect of continuing social distancing measures on the discretionary spending power of visitors.

The plan stresses the importance of bringing together government and industry to work out ways of showcasing the best of what the nation has to offer and to maximise the numbers of people and organisations seeking to take advantage of the appeal that Britain offers.

This includes the notion that the country has ‘something for everybody’; from, to name just a few, its history and its cultural attractions together with spectacular and diverse natural landscapes, a thriving arts sector, world famous sporting events - too numerous to mention but led by the world famous Wimbledon tennis championships - exhibitions, trade fairs and a capacity to host large scale business meetings and conferences.

According to the report, government has an important role in developing a strategy for the long-term recovery of tourism. It needs to develop a framework for a safe and sustainable return to non-essential travel when the time is right. This means lifting restrictions on domestic and international travel as soon as this is considered safe, bearing in mind the government’s prime responsibility is to apply measures to safeguard public health while not allowing the economy to deteriorate further.

In addition to establishing policy on health issues in the best interests of the country, government has to set effective and reasonable border and visa policies and procedures which protect the nation but at the same time offer a welcome to visitors - and it needs to ensure these are properly publicised. It is also the government’s role to promote the country internationally by improved official advertising campaigns, to help the private sector as appropriate in marketing their products and to provide support packages and tax incentives for meetings and conferences. But, above all, it is the government’s responsibility to invest in infrastructure throughout the land in order to support tourism more generally.

Such was the overwhelming level of damage from the virus, the report estimates tourism in the UK is unlikely to return to 2019 levels until 2025. Fortunately, the prospects for our own recovery here at home are much brighter, as the evidence already shows. But, even though the environment and conditions here are so different, the report may reveal some ideas that could be useful in finding innovative ways here of attracting visitors - including, as has been said so often, a greater emphasis on ecotourism.

Taking on the wokes

Having written last week about the launch in Britain of GB News, a new anti-woke TV channel, how depressing it is to have to report that it has already run into trouble. Up to ten well-known companies - including Vodafone, Bosch, Nivea and Ikea, the giant Swedish furniture firm - last week cancelled their advertisements with the new broadcaster following an online campaign by a Left-wing minority pressure group called Stop Funding Hate.

This group has been described as a collection of woke activists who started vilifying GB News months before it went on air because they claimed the channel was ‘designed to create division and demonise people’ by disseminating ‘toxic propaganda’. The group’s approach was to frighten companies into believing that large numbers of its customers would desert them unless their advertisements were pulled.

Stop Funding Hate was apparently formed as an organisation several years ago with the aim of censoring news outlets that it happened to disagree with. It claims to campaign against media companies that ‘indulge in bigotry and prejudice’. But, in reality what it seems to do is target mainstream publications and broadcasters whose views it dislikes. What is more, it adopts strong-arm tactics with offensive tweets trashing and harassing political leaders - and labelling, for example, the Conservatives a ‘filthy party of Far-Right scum’.

Delving further in to this, the evidence suggests Stop Funding Hate consists of an unhinged small group of Left-wing extremists trying to further their own highly partisan political agenda - and it mobilises a mob of internet bullies to intimidate and silence its opponents. But, as a self-righteous lobby group supposedly created to root out prejudice, it is surely guilty of that itself. Perhaps the hypocrisy is lost on its members.

To most people who are wedded to principles of common sense, decency and honesty that are the bedrock of a civilised society, it is baffling that in modern times so much attention is given to self-appointed, unrepresentative minority groups who seek to tear apart the fabric of society and undermine democracy while refusing to tolerate any dissent from their own dangerous ideology of hatred. Yet it is the case that people continue to submit to pressure and blackmail practised by such groups.

Happily, however, this is not the endgame as far as GB News is concerned. After the uproar of recent days over the gutless capitulation by large companies to a notorious group of activists, it is reported that the firms concerned are reconsidering their policies on the matter. Ikea, in particular, is said to be reviewing its earlier stance that the new channel did not ‘align with its humanistic values’ - whatever the company meant by that! Meanwhile, many people will hope GB News will flourish and succeed in fulfilling its claim to ‘lend an ear to some of Britain’s marginalised and overlooked voices’.

Myanmar misery only gets worse

In a world beset by crisis after crisis, how easily does the spotlight shift to new international troubles and disasters. A month ago, I wrote in detail about the terrible conflict in Myanmar, describing the violence and chaos there following the military coup at the beginning of February and the brutal clamp-down by security forces on pro-democracy protesters that has led to more than 700 deaths and the detention of thousands. Meanwhile, the persecution of the Rohingya minority ethnic group has been continuing.

But international media interest in this crisis seems to have waned, despite the deteriorating situation with ethnic armed groups now joining in the opposition to the military government.

The Western powers, led by the US, have imposed sanctions and have been ratcheting up economic pressure on the military through targeted measures on individuals as well as on two military conglomerates that control significant portions of the nation’s economy.

Because of Russian and Chinese opposition, the UN Security Council has been unable to do more than ‘strongly condemn’ the coup and the violence and to express its ‘deep concern’ about the situation in Myanmar and its support for democracy there. However, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) has added its voice to the call for an immediate cessation of violence and has urged constructive dialogue. So there has been powerful condemnation of the coup and the military crackdown.

Furthermore, a new development has been the recent UN General Assembly resolution heavily criticising the coup and the military action, terming it ‘excessive lethal violence’, and calling for an arms embargo while also warning Myanmar’s military leaders that, if they keep hold of power, they should resign themselves to pariah status indefinitely. The resolution called, too, for the release of President Win Myint and the de facto civilian leader of the country, Aung San Suu Kyi, who heads the National League for Democracy party that won a landslide victory in elections in 2020.

The military junta will doubtless shrug off all this condemnation. But, in another important development, Aung San Suu Kyi herself is now on trial, some four months after the coup. The junta has invented bogus and politically motivated corruption charges against her. She also faces a separate trial over alleged sedition. If convicted, she faces a long prison term which, given her age of 76, would amount to a life sentence. This would surely cause international uproar.

Human rights groups have already condemned this trial, but the junta is clearly intent on stopping her running in any future elections which she would be expected to win easily.

This crisis, then, shows no sign of ending. The UN special envoy to Myanmar has said recently that, in the absence of a collective international response to the coup and the violence against the protesters, the situation will continue to worsen and the local administration of the country will come to standstill – leading to a civil war which some say is already happening. While this nightmare continues, what a cautionary tale it should be for the watching international community.