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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
 NASSAU, Bahamas — The National Development Plan Secretariat recently met with senior officials from the Ministry of Tourism to strategize and discuss ideas that will be put into the plan.
“We were so excited to be invited to speak to the Ministry of Tourism and its senior officials to talk about the national development plan,” Dr. Nicola Virgill-Rolle , director of economic development and planning said.
“Of course tourism is our main industry in this country. It is the main employer and the main source of GDP.
“So we cannot do a national development plan without full understanding the potential of tourism. So as we look at expanding the economy we have to look at diversifying away from tourism but also diversifying within tourism.”
The National Development Plan is being developed as part of a three-part phase and is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The plan seeks to address the core areas of sustainable development, society, the environment and the economy.
Virgill-Rolle said the secretariat and ministry officials discussed several areas of how to improve the fundamentals of tourism, “which really revolve around our workforce and the strength of that workforce”.
“We also looked at issues of how do we increase our market share, things like promotions, tours and getting people in our hotels,” she said.
“Then we also looked at how do we innovate within tourism. So there we looked at things like what else should we be doing in tourism. How do we differentiate?
“Then we have to look at what tourists buy. We know that we need to improve our tourist spend.
“So at the moment cruise ship visitors are spending less than $100 and stopover visitors are spending just over $1,000.
“So how do we improve to allow greater attractions and having greater opportunities for them to interact with the Bahamian population, experiences, our food our culture?”
Virgill-Rolle said the first draft of the plan should be finished by the end of the month or early August.
“Of course we have to go to cabinet with the first draft and then we want to have a public release of that and to launch the conclave sessions,” she said.
The final plan should be ready to be tabled in Parliament by October, she said.
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