The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business

Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

AN ABACO farm yesterday unveiled ambitions to develop a full-scale resort attraction within the next five months as it seeks to exploit growing worldwide interest in eco-tourism and agro-tourism.

Daphne Degregory- Miaoulis, principal of Abaco Neem, told Tribune Business the resort component will aid her promotion of organic farming and link tourism directly to agriculture. “Basically we want to create an agro-eco tourism experience,” she said. “So we also want to have a strong focus on education, to promote organic farming, a sustainable lifestyle and just basically the value of living a healthy lifestyle.”

Nick Maioulis, her fellow principal at Abaco Neem, added: “We’re hoping to break ground within the next four to five months on our first cottage. And this is all out-of-pocket. Anything we make on the farm is saved into infrastructure, and it’s all reinvested back into the farm. So our current goal right now is to build cottages on our farm. So if you needed a long weekend, when you can have some adult time with your significant other, you can be incognito and be on the farm.”

Abaco Neem already attracts tourists for bird watching opportunities in addition to the “farm to table” experience, where guests are fed with produce directly from the farm. There are also visitors who “practice holistic healing”. Besides the Neem plant production, the business also has groves of traditional Bahamian fruit trees along with coconut trees. All produce is made available to guests and people looking to purchase.

Mrs Degregory-Miaoulis said: “We also want to cultivate the local corporate citizen who doesn’t have a connection with their family. We want to encourage them to put their electronic devices away, tune out and tune in. In other words, disconnect to reconnect with nature, with your family and with yourself. Disconnect from all of the chaos and reconnect through nature.”

Abaco Neem’s “neem forest” was described as a location where “walking through it is akin to bathing yourself in it”, Mrs Degregory-Miaoulis added. “I think that with this new millennium visitor, and actually coming out of COVID-19, people have become a lot more health conscious and lifestyle conscious. People don’t even go to offices any more. They work out at home, they travel and they can work anywhere their laptop goes,” she said.

“So I think that’s a perfect opportunity for The Bahamas, because we’re close to the North American market, which is looking for this ‘get out of the rat race’ kind of experience and’ also, they’re looking for more opportunities for families to spend time together.”