Nassau Bahamas - Minister of Tourism Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace has revealed that the government spent $5.8 million on the Miss Universe pageant that was held in The Bahamas last month.

"Now you can go back and you take a look at what was reportedly spent by Vietnam last year ? it was $15 million. And the $5.8 million includes all the fees for Miss Universe; all the transportation by air, sea and land for several hundred persons; all the hosting costs across all islands of The Bahamas visited by contestants, media and staff. That's it," said Vanderpool-Wallace yesterday at a news conference at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel.

Vanderpool-Wallace said private sector assistance was a major factor in keeping costs down for the government. He added that "without their support, there is no way we could have done what we did."

The tourism minister did not provide an estimated cost for private sector expenditure on the pageant. This is the first time the government has provided a total cost for hosting the pageant.

Contestants taking part in the pageant began arriving to The Bahamas at the beginning of August. The final event was held at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island. However, pageant-related activities were held across the country.

Statistics provided by Vanderpool-Wallace indicate that there was an upswing in interest about The Bahamas via the bahamas.com website during the pageant.

From August 22-24, there was nearly twice the amount of traffic on the site. The visits from non-U.S. countries increased from 10 percent to 37 percent, according to the data presented by the minister.

Vanderpool-Wallace said that the final event telecast was "the best commercial for The Bahamas that we would ever get."

"And I remind people that when we talk about the superbowl, 30 seconds of the superbowl last time was $2 million. We can do the arithmetic," he said. "We got close to ten minutes of The Bahamas being featured ? including about a minute and a half to Atlantis ? where we are displaying all that we have throughout the islands of The Bahamas which is something that was extraordinary."

Vanderpool-Wallace also produced three large volumes of international press clippings his ministry has collected as a result of the event.

source By BRENT DEAN, nassau guardian