Private Sector Must Drive Cultural Tourism

Despite talk from the political directorate for years that The Bahamas must begin pursuing so-called "cultural" or "heritage" tourism, according to Senator Tanya Wright, the private sector has not "taken the bull by the horns" and created businesses to drive that sector.

Sen. Wright, a past president of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce, acknowledged that cultural tourism has been the watchword for years at the Ministry of Tourism, spanning both the current and former political administrations.

"Regrettably, I don’t think our business community has actually stepped up to it. The Ministry of Tourism is not a private sector organization – it’s run that way, but the drivers of these policies, or bringing it into fruition has to be, to a large extent, private sector driven," she said.

Sen. Wright said that over years, decades and generations, it has been repeatedly Bahamians don’t invest in tourism; she said people levy this accusation because Bahamians don’t own the major hotels.

The senator said it was larger than that – Bahamians have to show they are prepared, she said, to invest in the Bahamian economy (not just one sector of it).

"Cultural/heritage tourism – all that is, is businesses providing the forum or the mechanism for tourists to enjoy our culture and our heritage. That’s really not the responsibility of the Ministry of Tourism," she said.

"Sure, they can put on a Junkanoo Summer Festival, but we need a viable business organization whose mandate is to provide a cultural and heritage experience for tourists when they come in, and it has to be driven by some sort of profit, or some sort of business plan or module."

"Private sector has to do that," Sen. Wright said. "You can’t expect the government to do that."

She said the government ought to ensure that whatever concessions or facilities are needed to allow the private sector to pursue these plans are in place; a seamless partnership is what she called it.

"The reason (cultural/heritage) tourism has not emerged (before) to the extent that it (is being talked about) now is because there has been no evidence – that I have seen – that a private sector body has taken the bull by the horns (and created a business in that industry with a business plan and a profit forecast)," Sen. Wright said.

"The private sector needs to demonstrate that it’s prepared to partner with tourism in order to make sure that these things happen. I see the opportunities."

The senator also insisted that entrepreneurs in The Bahamas don’t have to reinvent the wheel in order to create linkages to tourism taking advantage of cultural tourism.

"Our culture is already written, our heritage is already there for us, we don’t have to create it. By the time we were born it was created, and as we live we expand on it. So the model is there," Sen. Wright said. "Now to put it in a business plan or business concept, perhaps we do need to show the viability of it."

"This is where we need to know our culture a little more," she added. "We also need to know how to package it in order for it to be attractive."

Speaking as a businessperson, Sen. Wright said that cultural tourism is simply creating the product in a medium that can be exported or readily available to tourists.

While regional and international officials agree it is impossible to say how much money cultural tourism has generated with any degree of exactness – for instance, just because a tourist goes to a cultural show doesn’t mean they came to The Bahamas for cultural tourism – the sector has long been acknowledged for its growth potential.

In September 2002, World Tourism Organization executive Luigi Cabrini told a gathering in Belgium that "cultural tourism is growing faster than most other tourism segments and at a higher rate than tourism worldwide."

"This accelerated growth means that cultural sites, monuments and museums are becoming heavily congested," Mr. Cabrini said.

"It is recognized that tourism presents opportunities, if properly managed, to achieve a mutually sustainable and beneficial relationship with cultural heritage."

And in June of this year, nearly five years later, Martin Scicluna, of Europa Nostra, gave a talk to The Committee of Regions about "cultural tourism" citing almost exactly the same pros and cons.

"The advantages – the benefits – seem quite clear. Cultural tourism brings increased revenue to the heritage sites and, more broadly, to the community and country that hosts them. It can be an engine of economic growth," Mr. Scicluna told the meeting.

"Cultural tourism increases awareness among both the public and policy makers about the economic potential of heritage sites, thus hopefully leading to better funding for the conservation efforts needed to make such sites successful," he said.

"And it has the added effect of spreading knowledge and history about the cultural heritage not only to those who visit the sites, but also to the local community."

"On the other hand, there is a downside to cultural tourism – or rather tourism in the wider sense, in which cultural tourism plays such an important role," he added.

"The very assets on which tourism depend – the cultural and natural heritage – are also the daily resource of local people and can be threatened by exploitation and abuse. As an economic activity, tourism is often not in the control of local people. The drive for tourism development can lead to displacement, cultural degradation and the distortion of local economies and social structures."

Mr. Scicluna expressed concerns about the quality of experience both of the host community and of the tourist. There are cultural heritage, environmental, social and economic problems created by tourism development which he said needed to be controlled.

According to him, "the key lays in finding the right balance between encouraging the expansion of cultural tourism and safeguarding heritage sites and monuments by keeping the volume of tourists to heritage travel destination areas to within optimum sustainable limits."