The government has hired a firm of international consultants to audit tourism spending and subsidies, with the aim of getting more value for the millions spent annually on the country's number one industry, Prime Minister Perry Christie said. The review will probe taxes, operating costs, fees and incentives to find ways to enhance competitiveness and boost the sector, Christie said at a press conference in Grand Bahama to announce the impending reopening of the Reef Village hotel on Wednesday.

After the press conference the prime minister told The Nassau Guardian that the experts were brought in because the government believes it is not getting enough return on its tourism investments. "What has happened is on an increasing basis the government has gone beyond the Hotel Encouragement Act, which allows certain exemptions for duty supplies coming in for hotels," Christie explained. "We have had to incentivize developments, incentivize expansion, whether it's the third phase of Atlantis, where we had to give back in return some 20 percent of the value of the $1 billion investment.

We've incentivized Baha Mar, we incentivized when Club Med reopened here in Grand Bahama. The government was dragged into really putting in a lot of money, doing a lot of things to try to get the tourism industry going. Some of the things were really questionable because we weren't getting value for money. "Through having these experts come in to assist us in auditing what we are doing, in terms of the amounts of money, the type of marketing we're paying for, it will help us sort of maximize how we use our money and to get a better return."

Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe, who was also at the press conference, said while Grand Bahama had suffered through a low point in tourism for the past few years, its numbers have gotten better recently. "When we left office in 2007 we left overnight visitor arrivals at 587,000," Wilchcombe said. "Last year we saw it plummet by 180,000, a significant drop of 69 percent. I'm happy to report that tourism is now on the increase. We're seeing an increase in Grand Bahama of 14 percent. Nationally it's up eight percent and we will certainly exceed five million tourists again this year."

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian