Carnival impact report in 'several weeks'

Wed, May 11th 2016, 11:02 AM

Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe said yesterday that a detailed revenue and economic impact report for Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival will be completed and made public over the next few weeks.

"We expect [the report] over a period of several weeks," said Wilchcombe outside Cabinet. "[The Carnival Commission] would have to look at all the pieces and they would have to come back to us. But certainly no definitive time has been set, but we expect for them to do their work and after they have completed their work to report to the country."

Last year, the Bahamas National Festival Commission (BNFC) released its report on July 28, weeks after the initial deadline set by the commission. The report was initially supposed to be released within 21 days of the conclusion of the inaugural festival, which was staged from May 7-9 in New Providence.

According to that BNFC report, the government spent $12.9 million on the inaugural Junkanoo carnival, going over its initial budget of $9 million. A more modest budget was set for this year's festival after officials said they "streamlined" activities to cut down on costs. Last month, BNFC Chairman Paul Major confirmed that this year's entire carnival budget was around $7 million.

In March, Wilchcombe said the government's carnival budget would be "around $3 million". However, Wilchcombe said work on the final number was still being done. While the tourism minister yesterday could not say exactly how much was spent in the end, he said government is intent on sticking to the $7 million figure.

"I got the impression that the Ministry of Finance was dogged and determined that they stuck within their budget and I believe that the authorities did just that," said Wilchcombe. "... But I believe they stuck within the budget. We will have to wait and see. I don't know definitively, but I do know the Ministry of Finance was determined that they would work within budget."

He added that sponsorship donations also played a major part in covering costs.

"Of course, you had some major donations like BTC, who was a sponsor of $1 million," he said. "It was very significant."

The second annual Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival wrapped up on Saturday night after three days of events. Wilchcombe said it was another successful year for the cultural festival as he claimed there were more visitors in town for this year's carnival.

"We had more visitors here this year," said Wilchcombe. "We had more participation. We had the cruise lines and people from the cruise lines participating. We had many Americans who came in and many Caribbean people who came in. So we had the visitors here.

"Again it's a work in progress. You have to keep on working to the point where we are going to become one of the renowned carnivals in the world. Our carnival is a brand."

Jasmin Brown, Guardian Staff Reporter

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