The wrong association with The Bahamas

Thu, Apr 24th 2014, 10:34 AM

The cruise business has been booming in The Bahamas for years. According to data from the Ministry of Tourism, 2.8 million cruise visitors came to our country in 2002. Ten years later, in 2012, 4.4 million people visited The Bahamas on cruise ships. The arrivals total nearly doubled in a decade.
While it is true that cruise passengers spend much less than stopover visitors, the potential wealth to be gained from the large number of cruise visitors coming to our shores cannot be ignored. Just driving downtown the last few weeks the cruise visitors to the Port of Nassau are visible.
Now a U.S. attorney who authors a popular website on the cruise industry - www.cruiselawnews.com - has labeled The Bahamas "the number one most dangerous cruise destination in the world".
The list, compiled by Jim Walker, a partner of Walker & O'Neill Maritime Lawyers, places us above countries such as Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and Venezuela.
According to Walker, who spoke with The Nassau Guardian yesterday, his firm receives more complaints about crime in Nassau than all of the other ports in the Caribbean combined.
He has admitted, however, that his list is not based on "scientific facts".
"It's anecdotal in nature based on information we receive from cruise passengers who contact us and complain about being a victim of crime in a port of call," he wrote on the website, which appears prominently in Google searches about The Bahamas.
It is a bit of a stretch to state that The Bahamas is more dangerous in any respect than Honduras - the country with the highest murder rate in the world outside of war zones. However, The Bahamas being on that list at all, whether scientifically based or due to anecdotal references, is as a result of the crime problem we have in New Providence, which has spiraled in recent years.
That crime problem has been much discussed. We are all aware of it. Situations such as this listing highlight how the problem harms our economy, helping to negate the efforts of the government and investors to create jobs for the many who are out of work.
We have found no solution to the New Providence crime problem yet, but our policymakers must keep working at it. In terms of safeguarding our cruise port, uniformed police are visible more consistently now after much complaining by the public and merchants.
"You don't want to be harassed. We don't want to be threatened. We don't want to be in situations where we are simply afraid. And we've seen that," said Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe yesterday.
"We've witnessed that. We've talked about it. So it's a situation where we have to manage ourselves and ensure that we have officials on the scene to manage circumstances."
Wilchcombe said he has had talks with various cruise lines over the issue and while crime is a cause for serious concern, the country should not be number one on the list.
Minister of State for National Security Keith Bell too said the ranking is unfair when asked about it.
"The reality is we welcome in excess of five million visitors," he said. "And of that number probably less than one percent of tourists are affected by the crime problem.
"I don't think it's appropriate or fair to use that paintbrush to paint The Bahamas as a destination which is overridden with crime against tourists. That's not the case."
We need as a country to focus on bringing order to New Providence. If we do, we will not be on such lists. Yes, the description of The Bahamas is unwarranted. But which right-thinking Bahamian will stand up and say the Port of Nassau and the island of New Providence are safe places where visitors can freely move without fear of molestation?

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian

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