:
:jawdroop: You want the Christian Counsell freak out eh? Never mind the tourist arrivals it will bring.

its a nudist resort not a hedonistic retreat. christian council really need to take a chill pill sometimes and stop trying to be godly. i mean adam and eve walked naked in the garden in front of God for the Lord's sake! so whats wrong walking naked on private property? i mean we born naked right! it seems like the christian council has a dirty mind if they see nakedness as an abomination to the Lord.

Look we need to libralise, so what if there is a nude beach? If you do not want to go nude on the beach go to another one or just stay away from it. We have free choice, you can choose to do somthing or choose not to. The christian council is a immature group that really has no place in a democracy, how dare they tell me which movies i can watch? What bussines is it of theirs? If they choose to live their life as christians(what a joke as none of them do) good for them, but what gives them the right to shove their crap down my throat?

http://www.thenassauguardian.com/bixex/289151475922265.php
Cant locate the vid anywhere tho.


unless someone captures the commercials and posts them online.....the commercials will most likely premiere on Cable's site first.

a project already in progress i might add. ;)

the MOT at one point did really target europe and asia, especially back in the 80s and 90s ... lufthansa offered direct flights into nassau. there's still a pretty big chinese and japanese visitor base to eleuthera, and europeans take over the beaches in july and august.

back then, you could walk bay street in nassau without running into someone using the place for a public bathroom, not get knocked over by a speeding jitney, and buy a book at island gift shop without being accosted by several braiders or weavers selling tacky plastic "bahamian" craft works.

i worked on a number of those euro campaigns, as did my parents and grandparents, and the peeps in charge just seemed to take the issue far more seriously back then. something happened in the late 80s/early 90s, though, and all of the sophisticated marketing efforts up to that time got caught in a mad wave of stupid insipid shallow advertising campaigns that made the bahamas look just like honolulu or miami.

can we bring back the good old days, or are we just going to wait for havana to eat our lunch?

those coralwave tv commercials are indeed nice and very well done, but after viewing one for the first time I had to ask my self "what were they selling". seems I missed the pitch.

when you wanna target european tourist you cannot advertise nassau and freeport. they dont want big hotels and crowds. what they want is a relaxing vacation with no casinos. thats why san salvador is becoming a famous destination for europeans. san sal have direct flights from europe. if we could market more of our out islands to the european travelers then we would be in a good position.
but honestly if we really attract travelers from all over the world, open a nudist resort or beach. you will see the flocks that would come here.

the brits are all over LI also ..

those coralwave tv commercials are indeed nice and very well done, but after viewing one for the first time I had to ask my self "what were they selling". seems I missed the pitch.

thought they were selling condoms in one of them, the way the guy and gall was dirty dancing all over the place .. :D

thought they were selling condoms in one of them, the way the guy and gall was dirty dancing all over the place .. :D



Rory, you gatta stop!! You does kill me dead!! Say selling condoms and dirty dancing. I LMAO

Bump....

*Bumping for LLCoolG so she could add her piece about the folks who study hard, graduate college with a diverse degree and still end up working in the hotel or as teller #1 at Scotiabank*

~~

seriously.....here is what i have to say about the whole tourism deal....

this country is in trouble. we have our blinders on. we seem to have tunnel-vision when it comes to tourism. as a Bahamian that has spent a few years abroad (Canada).....there is nothing so (obviously) special about us (outside our close proximity to the US) that MAKE tourists come here. i remember seeing ads on TV for Cuba, Mexico, Jamaica, Barbados, etc....and initially mistaking those places as The Bahamas. even now, when i see ads for the Caymans....i find myself saying "oh....i didn't know we had a new ad out".

now, seeing as how tourism has been our bread & butter for sooooooooooooooooooooooo many years (and unfortunately looks as if it will remain so for quite some time).....isn't it time for an upgrade? and no, i don't mean building a 3000+ resort out Cable Beach. something NEW needs to happen. NOW! how many times can a tourist find Atlantis fascinating? hell, i've only walked through Atlantis a handful of times...and I'm bored with it.

we need to develop some of the Family Islands. and NOT with major resorts either. jeez........everything BIG isn't always fulfilling. some people just want to get away for a while. away from the hustle & bustle of their everyday lives. why not promote the islands individually?

using the new CoralWave ads for an example. they use different ads to promote different packages. why can't we do that with the different islands? for example.....why not advertise Exuma as the family getaway island? Abaco as the couple's getaway island? etc..... (i can see the slogan now...."make your getaway today")

we need to use ALL of The Bahamas in tourism and not just P.I.

The Bahamas is not as interesting or appealing as it once was. we need to shake things up so that every tourist has a choice to make. not between The Bahamas and other destinations....but between our islands.

c'mon people......if you're not going to diversify our economy so that we have something else to lean on.....at least shake up the tourism product. PLEASE!

Our problem is that we offer nothing to do here but Sun, Sand, and Sea. Go to vegas and they have a multitude of shows, concerts, clubs, and activities to do. I went to a gocart race track there and my boys and myself had a blast. We need to offer more, as people want more. I bet there is more to do on a Cruise ship than Nassau. Our product is stale and we have rested on what the lord provided(Sun, Sea, and Sand) for to long. When will someone do a festival/concert that has world class acts that are not reggae? Look at some of these festivals around the world and check out how many people go to them. 100 thousand is not an unrealistic figure and it could turn into a yearly event. I know the Christian Council would have a fit as they belive we are all children who can not make up out own mind but to hell with them. A good Rock and Roll concert would bring many people from around the world. Have we ever had anything like that in the Bahamas besides the bands that Kerzner brings in for his guests occasionally? Also our night life here is the pits, all very similar with no real cool out/lounge type places. As a long time visitor said to me "this island is just stagnant", i agree!

Look we need to libralise, so what if there is a nude beach? If you do not want to go nude on the beach go to another one or just stay away from it. We have free choice, you can choose to do somthing or choose not to. The christian council is a immature group that really has no place in a democracy, how dare they tell me which movies i can watch? What bussines is it of theirs? If they choose to live their life as christians(what a joke as none of them do) good for them, but what gives them the right to shove their crap down my throat?

:hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer:

PLP Inaction Has Hurt Tourism

This country is in trouble. Crime is on the increase, drugs will soon challenge legitimate business, guns are available at the snap of a finger backed up with some cash, tourism - this country's number one industry - is in decline while Opposition politicians squabble over the loss of an election.

Bahamians are worried about their jobs, their businesses and their futures. They are not concerned, nor have most of them any sympathy with the fallout from an election that the Opposition claimed went wrong, especially when much of the election confusion can be laid at the feet of the former prime minister who failed to allow enough time for officials to properly organise the various polling stations. Quite frankly, considering the lack of time and planning, it is a miracle that the May election went off as smoothly as it did.

In the end there had to be a winner and there had to be a loser. The PLP, then the government, was the loser. Its leaders have now decided to challenge three constituencies to try to win back the government. Instead of all Bahamians joining forces to meet the challenges that this country now faces, it appears that election courts and the Opposition are to become a most unwelcome distraction.

As Senator Tanya Wright, whose appointment the Opposition also promises to challenge on constitutional grounds, told fellow Senators yesterday: "We are not here to become spectacles and we are not here to please the crowd. So, we have to pull up our bootstraps and move on rather quickly to the order of the day, which is actually doing the work of the government and the governance of this country."

Much time has already been lost and the former government, now in opposition, has no right to try to turn the clock back, especially as much of the slippage in tourism can be attributed to their failure to respond to the industry's distress signals. Indecision on how to move forward was the greatest cross that this country had to bear for the past five years.

There is anguished wringing of hands over Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines' announcement that it will pull three of its vessels from the Bahamas this summer and redeploy them to other destinations. This pull-out, based on 2005 tourism figures, represents an annual loss of some 166,756 tourists and $9.338 million in visitor spending. This could be the final blow to a Bay Street already in decline.

But why did this have to happen? And why wasn't there more warning.

The tragedy is that there was plenty of warning, but a government that had promised to keep nothing back from the Bahamian people, failed to share the bad news.

The former prime minister went so far as to assure Bahamians during the election campaign that the tourist industry was healthy and tourists were still coming. In fact, quite the contrary.

Tourism figures that his government was withholding until after the election, told another story - tourism was in trouble, and visitor arrivals were down.

According to a release last night from the Ministry of Tourism, Royal Caribbean warned as early as 2004 of its fleet upgrades and the need for larger docks in Nassau and throughout the Bahamas. (See story on today's front page).

"Not only were no changes made to Nassau and Freeport harbours," said the Ministry, "but further, according to Royal Caribbean, they were given no assurances by the Government of the time frame in which the suggested and necessary infrastructural changes might in fact be made.

"Royal Caribbean had no choice but to plan alternate destinations for their vessels." The Freedom class ships "require more inner harbour space to permit safe manoeuvring. Bahamian ports are regrettably unable to accommodate such large ships at this time."

In other words the world was not going to stand still and wait for the Bahamas to catch up. And so we lost the business. Warned of the enlarging of the ships and the anticipated problems, it appears that the Christie government did nothing.

Shipping agents complain that they held a meeting on April 18, 2005 with then Minister Glenys Hanna Martin warning of serious loss of business if nothing were done to upgrade and enlarge the deteriorating Prince George dock. Suggestions were made, even going as far as to recommend the possibility of reclaiming 30 to 35 feet along Woodes Rodgers Wharf, stretching from Charlotte Street to the British Colonial Hilton to locate the straw market. The Minister listened, but nothing was done. As a result three large ships are leaving because no move was made to accommodate their plans to replace their present vessels with the larger, Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas, which, if accommodated would have brought even more visitors to our shores.

After these disclosures what would make the PLP believe that they would be welcomed back in the halls of decision making? Really their arrogance has inflated them far from the realm of reality. As the young folk say: It's time for them to come back to earth and "get a grip."

Editorial from The Tribune
Nassau, Bahamas

Our problem is that we offer nothing to do here but Sun, Sand, and Sea. Go to vegas and they have a multitude of shows, concerts, clubs, and activities to do. I went to a gocart race track there and my boys and myself had a blast. We need to offer more, as people want more. I bet there is more to do on a Cruise ship than Nassau. Our product is stale and we have rested on what the lord provided(Sun, Sea, and Sand) for to long. When will someone do a festival/concert that has world class acts that are not reggae? Look at some of these festivals around the world and check out how many people go to them. 100 thousand is not an unrealistic figure and it could turn into a yearly event. I know the Christian Council would have a fit as they belive we are all children who can not make up out own mind but to hell with them. A good Rock and Roll concert would bring many people from around the world. Have we ever had anything like that in the Bahamas besides the bands that Kerzner brings in for his guests occasionally? Also our night life here is the pits, all very similar with no real cool out/lounge type places. As a long time visitor said to me "this island is just stagnant", i agree!

Lets do a Pride Festival I understal millions of people attend these events in the big cities.