gemmanyah
10-23-03, - 12:12 AM
Employment in Eleuthera
Employment is perhaps the most fundamental question to the growth of Eleuthera today. The fact is that employment has been at an all time low for the past ten years in Eleuthera. We have not had the benefit as other islands have to have major hotels and other investment entities impact our local economy.
For the past twenty or so years the only employment on the island of Eleuthera has been the few hotel properties that still exist in areas like Harbour Island and Winding Bay, the private sector of businesses like the few bank branches, the numerous independent businesses like the food stores and the government sector.
The hotel sector has left much to be desired. On the main island of Eleuthera over the past twenty years we have lost all of our major hotels due to the lack of interest of the original investors or the damage caused by natural disasters like hurricanes. This happened in the case of our most prestigious hotel property, Club Meditteraine in Governors Harbour.
The only new hotel development on the mainland has been the establishment of the Winding Bay, Club Venta by the Italian Ventagglio hotel chain. This sixty-room hotel has since closed its doors and sits empty on the beaches of Winding Bay today either because of a lack of clientele or a lack of interest by the owners of the hotel chain.
Harbour Island has continued to do well in the hotel/tourism sector. For the past five years Harbour Island, unlike the remainder of Eleuthera has achieved an explosion of tourism visitors. This is due to the local phenomena of the wonderful, accommodating people of Harbour Island, the increased access by air service with the refurbishment of the North Eleuthera airport and the mystique which continues to flourish in the area when it comes to tourist services and the quaint continued service to the guests that visit the island. Tourists tend to love Harbour Island.
Harbour island like Abaco is a unique case in Eleuthera and the Bahamas. These areas need to be further studied by our tourism officials in order to ascertain what factors make these places work so well for tourist with a view to adapting these phenomena to other parts of Eleuthera and the Bahamas.
Harbour Island, like Abaco, Sansalvador and Exuma has continued to grow its hotel sector with the establishment and renovation of the few hotel properties on the island. New properties like the Rock House and the New Valentines Marina are evidence of this. The island is only affected in a negative way when the seasonal closure of these hotel properties occurs during the months of August and September. Months when the visitor arrivals are dropping off and hotel occupancy are traditionally down.
Private sector businesses on Eleuthera are surely a source of positive accomplishment. For generations merchants on Eleuthera have continued to sense the need for essential goods and services by the local population and have moved to fill these needs in a way that keeps the local economy amply supplied daily with fresh goods. The weekly mail boat services are the driving force behind the importation of these goods from ports like Nassau primarily and secondarily Miami.
Eleuthera can certainly benefit further from the establishment of major food chains and mall outlets like Costco’s, Solomon’s and City Markets. These make for better competition in the local markets and will keep the economy keen and competitive, a necessity in any growing country. These give the consumer more choice and excite the local environment into continued revenue spending.
The banking sector continues to flourish especially over the last twenty years when banks realized the need for Eleutherians to borrow money and hedge their properties and employment against the fastly growing inflation on the island. Banks have moved in to Eleuthera continually and established themselves in order to take advantage of this necessity. However the industry is fastly growing sour. With the massive lack of employment and the already overburdened income of Eleutherians many long established properties and investments are up for sale by the major banks. The island simply does not have the employment levels to sustain such entities like our major cities. We have been caught in the process and are being bitten badly for following our only mains of sustenance.
Over the past few years the banks have had to make significant legal moves to sell off indentured properties in order to recover lost funds. If this trend is allowed to continue Eleutherians on the whole will loose in a major way. Banks have been necessary last resort for funding by Eleutherians who have sold themselves out of necessity to the banks for the necessary funds they need to live and flourish in this most down trended economy presently.
Whether the banks remain and continue to lend money depends on how fast the turn around in the economy takes place on Eleuthera. Without the necessary funding to effect that turn around themselves Eleutherians are turning to the government to attract foreign investment as has been the case traditionally.
The few foreign philanthropist of the past are now a dying breed. Their survivors have sought not to invest their funds in Eleuthera like the patriarchs and have turned away from the investments their fathers funded in the deep south Eleuthera and do not feel the responsibility their forefathers felt to support and grow the economy of Eleuthera for the benefit mainly of Eleutherians.
Men like Juan Tripp of Pan American Airlines, Mr. J. D. Ames of Alcoa Aluminum, Arthur Vining Davis and a few others took the bull by the horns and single handily invested personal fortunes in order to develop hotels, Marina’s, Golf coursesk, shopping centers and other essential properties in South Eleuthera. South Eleuthera Properties owned by these philanthropist was the wealthiest land holding company in the Bahamas but was forced out of their business many feel by the PLP government who had selfish interest at heart when they overtook the government during the late sixties and the early seventies. The company ran and sold off their holdings for pennies to the dollar no longer interested in being dictated to by the new political culture, which swept through the Bahamas and South Eleuthera.
The present day inheritors of the south Eleuthera properties holdings either do not have the interest and the good will to further develop businesses and hotel properties in South Eleuthera or they simply do not have the funds to do so. In either case the populous of Eleuthera has lost a great generation of meaningful, necessary investment experienced during the days of the great philanthropical giants mentioned above.
The answer to private investment therefore falls at the feet of government, which is the only body with the capital, interest or the will to create investment and employment in the area of South Eleuthera. The problem is that they are burdened with the task of similar investment and employment everywhere in the Bahamas and are not able to answer the task single handily in the timeframe expected by all Bahamians.
The fact is that the burden for investment and the creation of jobs lies with the government. The government established a process and continues to hold onto and do not make the necessary funds available to local Eleutherians in order for them to invest.
Given the levels of investment needed in order to create jobs in the tourism sector and the private sector the people of Eleuthera simply do not have the amounts of collateral needed to secure the loan amounts necessary to establish and build these properties. The minimal investment in hotel properties mentioned these days is well into more than fifty million dollars. Where in the world can the average Bahamian or Eleutherian raise the necessary collateral to approach this kind of tourism project? The fact is that this is the kind of hotel/tourism property with which they will have to compete.
Government must bite the bullet and make lesser amounts of funding available to Eleutherians on a good faith/good business practice basis in order to see a turn around in the amounts of tourism properties and developments entered into by the local population. I do not see this happening in the present polarized political climate. Government will simply not take the necessary risk needed to empower local Eleutherians and Bahamamians in order to assist them in the process of investing themselves in tourism/hotel properties.
However it can be done. There is a model of business, which we can follow to establish this necessary process. Eleuthera and the Bahamas can be a flowing paradise for tourism given our proximity to the largest tourist market in the world. We have a beginning in our history. Let us continue to build on what we have. Let us establish ourselves and grow to be the most successful tourist colony in the western hemisphere. With the right attitude by government and political officials I feel this trend can happen for us within the next five years.
This is my hope and my vision for investment and employment for Eleuthera and the Bahamas for the next five years.
Employment is perhaps the most fundamental question to the growth of Eleuthera today. The fact is that employment has been at an all time low for the past ten years in Eleuthera. We have not had the benefit as other islands have to have major hotels and other investment entities impact our local economy.
For the past twenty or so years the only employment on the island of Eleuthera has been the few hotel properties that still exist in areas like Harbour Island and Winding Bay, the private sector of businesses like the few bank branches, the numerous independent businesses like the food stores and the government sector.
The hotel sector has left much to be desired. On the main island of Eleuthera over the past twenty years we have lost all of our major hotels due to the lack of interest of the original investors or the damage caused by natural disasters like hurricanes. This happened in the case of our most prestigious hotel property, Club Meditteraine in Governors Harbour.
The only new hotel development on the mainland has been the establishment of the Winding Bay, Club Venta by the Italian Ventagglio hotel chain. This sixty-room hotel has since closed its doors and sits empty on the beaches of Winding Bay today either because of a lack of clientele or a lack of interest by the owners of the hotel chain.
Harbour Island has continued to do well in the hotel/tourism sector. For the past five years Harbour Island, unlike the remainder of Eleuthera has achieved an explosion of tourism visitors. This is due to the local phenomena of the wonderful, accommodating people of Harbour Island, the increased access by air service with the refurbishment of the North Eleuthera airport and the mystique which continues to flourish in the area when it comes to tourist services and the quaint continued service to the guests that visit the island. Tourists tend to love Harbour Island.
Harbour island like Abaco is a unique case in Eleuthera and the Bahamas. These areas need to be further studied by our tourism officials in order to ascertain what factors make these places work so well for tourist with a view to adapting these phenomena to other parts of Eleuthera and the Bahamas.
Harbour Island, like Abaco, Sansalvador and Exuma has continued to grow its hotel sector with the establishment and renovation of the few hotel properties on the island. New properties like the Rock House and the New Valentines Marina are evidence of this. The island is only affected in a negative way when the seasonal closure of these hotel properties occurs during the months of August and September. Months when the visitor arrivals are dropping off and hotel occupancy are traditionally down.
Private sector businesses on Eleuthera are surely a source of positive accomplishment. For generations merchants on Eleuthera have continued to sense the need for essential goods and services by the local population and have moved to fill these needs in a way that keeps the local economy amply supplied daily with fresh goods. The weekly mail boat services are the driving force behind the importation of these goods from ports like Nassau primarily and secondarily Miami.
Eleuthera can certainly benefit further from the establishment of major food chains and mall outlets like Costco’s, Solomon’s and City Markets. These make for better competition in the local markets and will keep the economy keen and competitive, a necessity in any growing country. These give the consumer more choice and excite the local environment into continued revenue spending.
The banking sector continues to flourish especially over the last twenty years when banks realized the need for Eleutherians to borrow money and hedge their properties and employment against the fastly growing inflation on the island. Banks have moved in to Eleuthera continually and established themselves in order to take advantage of this necessity. However the industry is fastly growing sour. With the massive lack of employment and the already overburdened income of Eleutherians many long established properties and investments are up for sale by the major banks. The island simply does not have the employment levels to sustain such entities like our major cities. We have been caught in the process and are being bitten badly for following our only mains of sustenance.
Over the past few years the banks have had to make significant legal moves to sell off indentured properties in order to recover lost funds. If this trend is allowed to continue Eleutherians on the whole will loose in a major way. Banks have been necessary last resort for funding by Eleutherians who have sold themselves out of necessity to the banks for the necessary funds they need to live and flourish in this most down trended economy presently.
Whether the banks remain and continue to lend money depends on how fast the turn around in the economy takes place on Eleuthera. Without the necessary funding to effect that turn around themselves Eleutherians are turning to the government to attract foreign investment as has been the case traditionally.
The few foreign philanthropist of the past are now a dying breed. Their survivors have sought not to invest their funds in Eleuthera like the patriarchs and have turned away from the investments their fathers funded in the deep south Eleuthera and do not feel the responsibility their forefathers felt to support and grow the economy of Eleuthera for the benefit mainly of Eleutherians.
Men like Juan Tripp of Pan American Airlines, Mr. J. D. Ames of Alcoa Aluminum, Arthur Vining Davis and a few others took the bull by the horns and single handily invested personal fortunes in order to develop hotels, Marina’s, Golf coursesk, shopping centers and other essential properties in South Eleuthera. South Eleuthera Properties owned by these philanthropist was the wealthiest land holding company in the Bahamas but was forced out of their business many feel by the PLP government who had selfish interest at heart when they overtook the government during the late sixties and the early seventies. The company ran and sold off their holdings for pennies to the dollar no longer interested in being dictated to by the new political culture, which swept through the Bahamas and South Eleuthera.
The present day inheritors of the south Eleuthera properties holdings either do not have the interest and the good will to further develop businesses and hotel properties in South Eleuthera or they simply do not have the funds to do so. In either case the populous of Eleuthera has lost a great generation of meaningful, necessary investment experienced during the days of the great philanthropical giants mentioned above.
The answer to private investment therefore falls at the feet of government, which is the only body with the capital, interest or the will to create investment and employment in the area of South Eleuthera. The problem is that they are burdened with the task of similar investment and employment everywhere in the Bahamas and are not able to answer the task single handily in the timeframe expected by all Bahamians.
The fact is that the burden for investment and the creation of jobs lies with the government. The government established a process and continues to hold onto and do not make the necessary funds available to local Eleutherians in order for them to invest.
Given the levels of investment needed in order to create jobs in the tourism sector and the private sector the people of Eleuthera simply do not have the amounts of collateral needed to secure the loan amounts necessary to establish and build these properties. The minimal investment in hotel properties mentioned these days is well into more than fifty million dollars. Where in the world can the average Bahamian or Eleutherian raise the necessary collateral to approach this kind of tourism project? The fact is that this is the kind of hotel/tourism property with which they will have to compete.
Government must bite the bullet and make lesser amounts of funding available to Eleutherians on a good faith/good business practice basis in order to see a turn around in the amounts of tourism properties and developments entered into by the local population. I do not see this happening in the present polarized political climate. Government will simply not take the necessary risk needed to empower local Eleutherians and Bahamamians in order to assist them in the process of investing themselves in tourism/hotel properties.
However it can be done. There is a model of business, which we can follow to establish this necessary process. Eleuthera and the Bahamas can be a flowing paradise for tourism given our proximity to the largest tourist market in the world. We have a beginning in our history. Let us continue to build on what we have. Let us establish ourselves and grow to be the most successful tourist colony in the western hemisphere. With the right attitude by government and political officials I feel this trend can happen for us within the next five years.
This is my hope and my vision for investment and employment for Eleuthera and the Bahamas for the next five years.