22/08/2024
My response to a comment made regarding the closing of The Bahamas Maritime Museum in Port Lucaya while we have numerous schools on the island and there continued support whould assist if only to keep the bills paid they are not sufficient to maintain the business and that is if they all we coming! Sadly with most schools, they have and initial interest but that vanes precipitously with time. All schools should support these venues for their own benefit and promoting local knowledge and support of what is local and Bahamian however, they don't and the struggle that these place see is real. Coral Vita is the newest. Prior we had Garden of the Goves, The Nature Center, Lucayan National Park, The Jack Hayward Library and a few others. You wouldn't have heard of Grum Ma's House had we not met under Valdez K Russell's presentation a few years ago. It's not withstanding the marketing that is presented but the culture of the people to promote what isn't there own. I spent over $1000 on glossy colour flyers for all the schools on Grand Bahama from East End to West End delivering them personally. What I discovered: if the "right" person does not take possession of the information and "push" it for youin the school, nothing will happen. The right person may not be the Principal. If the Principal is averse to it, the right person will not be able to assist with school trips. The Ministry of Education and the Minister may not be able to assist you. There are persons in the system who will go out of their way to disrupt such activities. There are not enough teachers and interested persons in the system to support school trips. Parliament Square Cultural Center was on Grand Bahama for almost two years. Some schools initially came and not the entire school. Some taxi drivers supported. Taxi drivers do not have to take certain fares therefore we will always have a transportation problem. Taxi drivers do not have to take their fares to certain places. Taxi drivers can encourage their fares to go where they want them to go. The cruise vessels were not interested even though some of their passengers visited. The cruise industry hvae a system and if you do not fit in that your activity or offering will not be available onboard. Cruise vessels encourage their guests to utilize only tours offered by the vessel. The cruise industry requires a minimum of $2M in liability insurance with their name written in the policy. Doing business in Freeport and Grand Bahama is costly for many reasons. Operating in high traffic areas come with even higher costs. Grum Ma's House operated for 10 years albeit on a shoestring budget since I lost most of my funds in parliamentsquarebahamas.com Parliament Square Bahamas Cultural after sinking almost $250K much in rent. I still have a hugh rent bill $$$$$ that is outstanding. Thank God they haven't sent the collectors after me like some of the city did with Parliament Square even though the amount was one year's fee. I can count the classes that supported not schools. St. Georges class on Tourism was one. West End Primary came almost every year and one or two others. Lewis Yard Primary School supported for a few years but vaned. I was getting most of my guests through Online Travel Agencies. While this may appear beneficial they asked for 20% initially. Viator then came up with a scheme that would increase your visibility of course that meant that you had to increase the amount they received to as much as you placed on the % meter! This makes your product either above the margin for most even though I was catering to people who were not as price averse, it still created issues with patronage. It meant that from my cost of $65/ tour I received $52 and for $35/tour - $28. I wish we could indeed follow your layout as that would be simpler. I have over the years arrived at a solution but that within itself is complicated as we do not have the expertise here especially in the Ministry. The Bahamas can market to those guest who wish to travl by cruise vessel as well as cultural heritage guests who normally travel by airlines offering them all these opportunities. The marketing thrust is set on giving cultural heritage guests the opportunity to visit Freeport Grand Bahama by cruise vessels even though this is not their regular mode of travel. The major aspect of this marketing effort is to have them purchase before they board the ship. They would be assured of transportation in the mode that is applicable to this segment of travelers, safety & security, at their pace time consistent with vessel alloted time, value for money as the 20% markup would be removed, opportunity for immersion and interaction, a Bahamas Souvenir Experience (my key words). What will we get: most ships have only about 40% of the passengers disembark or purchase onboard tours. On average this number that is uninterested in well over 1000 passengers. As vessels size increase that number is over 2000. These uninterested group can be replaced by an interested group that we market to before the ship takes on passengers. The spend value per passenger will increase exponentially. The amount of money the country makes from passengers per vessel will increase. The business opportunity onshore will increase. Sustainability for many businesses will be solid. Employment will increase. Employee salary will increase as these operations pay beter than T-Shirt operations. The cultural heritage industry will grow. The cultural heritage value of The Bahamas will increase. Bahamians will take notice of their own culture by extension. Programs and policies can be implement to support this new direction. Donald W Duncombe Grum Ma's House Cultural Center Hunters, Grand Bahama. Thursday 22 August 2024.
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