One of the country's top tourism officials has pledged to challenge the government and private sector to buy into the idea that tourism should be "less about erecting huge hotels" and more about resort ownership which Bahamians can be a part of, arguing that the country's tourism potential is unmet because the average Bahamian "feels marginalized" from the tourism sector.
David Johnson, director general in the Ministry of Tourism since 2010, told Rotarians that a huge opportunity exists for The Bahamas to capitalize on its untapped earning potential in tourism by further developing the Family Islands through creating incentives for Bahamians to be owners of tourism infrastructure via the development of vacation communities where they can build and own vacation rentals.
Johnson, who has worked in the tourism sector since the 1960s, was addressing the Rotary Club of West Nassau at the Poop Deck Restaurant yesterday afternoon on the subject of "The Business of Tourism".
He painted a picture of a Bahamas that has been too heavily focused on the role of major hotels in the tourism sector, which has made development difficult to predict as it is reliant on the whims of major investors. The focus on hotels has also contributed to a tourism industry that is generally Nassau-centric, as well as too expensive for many visitors and difficult to operate in a sustainable way, Johnson charged.
He suggested that changing this approach is important, not just to the sustainability of business operations, but because today's generation is less interested in jobs alone, and more interested in ownership in the tourism industry. Given a perception that this is unattainable, Bahamians feel "marginalized by the very existence" of the tourism sector, and this has knock-on effects on visitors' experiences on the islands when they do come.
"We're not going to have Bahamians embracing and feeling proud about an industry when they feel marginalized by its very existence. They feel an emotive disconnect that we must fix, because a happy island is where people want to come to, not an island that is in conflict with what's going on in tourism," he said.
In light of this, Johnson said that he is on a mission to change the mindset of the government as it relates to tourism in The Bahamas, and plans to present practical steps that can be taken to move in a new direction - to focus on vacation communities made up of rental homes owned by Bahamians.
"What I think is that the way forward in tourism, in a very big way, should be and could be less about erecting huge hotels and casino complexes, because there's a limited market for that," said Johnson.
"So what I'm going to be doing is challenging the government and the private sector to have the vision, as we look at the Family Islands, to say what could be better than to design a number of new tourism communities, deed restricted, where you plan the activities, where you plan the ability to organize the fishing, your bicycle tracks, jogging tracks, it's properly landscaped, you've got all the facilities of a resort but you're living in a home, and these homes can be financed by Bahamians like yourselves.
"That is a far less risk than hoping one investor will roll the dice and make money or close up shop. That gives us ownership and gives us pride, and that can develop these islands and make them the envy of the world because that type of vacation is one where the families and people coming there really feel not just that they are visiting, but they feel too that they are a part of the community and they come back every year."
Calling the opening of Baha Mar in December of this year a "major, major business opportunity", he said that tourism will continue to "suffer" from the high costs in the sector, which have contributed to the fact that most hotels can target only "high-end customers" due to their prices.
"What this means is that we will still be faced with, in the very near term until we can tackle our costs, a very difficult challenge for those who have made that gutsy investment, to generate operating profits. It's going to be a fantastic, great opportunity, we'll steal business from the rest of the region because of the great product we have here, but it has to work on the basis of profits to be sustained and so we have a lot of work to do to offer a first-class product, to begin to manage our costs, so that these partners who've invested in Nassau can generate sufficient profit to sustain their operations," said Johnson.
The director general went on to argue that not only are many customers being priced out of this type of tourism, but they are also not seeking it to begin with.
"More of our potential travelers look at destinations like Ashville, North Carolina, or even Abaco, where 80 percent of the accommodations are homes, vacation homes. And guess what? It's easy to build them, and people will go over hurdles to get to them. That's their place, their special place. They have an emotional connection to it. They know the place, they feel like they are a part of it, and they'll come every year."
The director general said he pictures a Bahamas where every Bahamian has a vacation home in the Family Islands, that they can use to generate income six months of the year by renting out to visitors, and which they can use for their own enjoyment at other times.
"The way forward is to involve and engage our people in the mainstream of tourism ownership, and I think it needs to be less about hotels and more about resort ownership in a less traditional way," he added.
According to the tourism official, The Bahamas is in a unique position to capitalize on tourism. He claimed that many other major destinations in the region may have as little as 25 percent of their capacity remaining, while The Bahamas "hasn't even used up 10 percent" given that 80 percent of the tourism economy is Nassau-based.
"If you look throughout the entire Caribbean, there is not one country I know of which has the earning potential of The Bahamas. If we were stock we'd be the highest-rated stock in the industry. That's because we're only focused on Nassau, and most of the other 699 islands are bigger and in many ways more beautiful."
Responding to a comment from the audience suggesting that his views must be at odds with the government, Johnson said: "I'm not at odds with the administration in my view, but there's a process. We are here to provide not only our thoughts but how it can be done. You can often find that otherwise you get listening ears and nodding heads, but nothing gets done."
He said that after a couple of years in which the government was "fighting fires" in the tourism sector, with major resorts like Sandals Emerald Bay close to closure and in need of government assistance, Johnson suggested that the government is now more focused on looking at ideas such as his.

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