COMMENTARY: BY OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 26, 2020 — This commentary was prompted by today’s Facebook reminder of a post I originally published five years ago on May 26, 2015. I lived in Freeport for 12 years prior to relocating to Washington, D.C.in May of 2013 as the Press, Cultural Affairs and Information Manager at The Bahamas Embassy, and today’s Facebook Memories nostalgically revived my unbridled hope at the time it was posted that Freeport indeed was back on track to regain its once widely heralded title of being the “Magic City.”
Two photos were posted with the following brief story:
“THE MAGIC IS HEADED BACK TO FREEPORT AFTER YEARS OF FINANCIAL DROUGHT!
FREEPORT, Grand Bahama – Sunwing Airlines made its inaugural flight to Grand Bahama from Houston, Texas, on Sunday, May 24, carrying 145 passengers. The flight was met by director of tourism for Grand Bahama Betty Bethel and other Ministry of Tourism staff members.
According to Ms. Bethel, the Ministry of Tourism has a summer and winter program, with this being the first of many flights scheduled for the rest of this year, which will result in positive economic impact for Grand Bahama. With flights coming in from eight US cities and from Canada, Grand Bahama to date has already surpassed its 2014 visitor numbers to the Island.”
Unfortunately, the progress that was being made towards achieving this very optimistic objective was derailed by back-to-back disastrous events: the assault of Hurricane Dorian on the islands of Grand Bahama and the Abacos during the first week of September 2019 and the havoc that COVID-19 is currently wreaking around the world.
Both natural disasters have dealt catastrophic blows to The Bahamas’ major economic lifeline – tourism — and COVID-19, in particular, continues to make the task ahead to maintain The Bahamas’ universal reputation as one of the world’s leading tourist destinations very difficult for Minister of Tourism and Aviation Dionisio D’Aguilar, his executive management team and the Ministry’s highly skilled tourism promotional professionals.
While the vast majority of the Islands of The Bahamas basically are still very much open for business despite the restrictions that COVID-19 has put on travel internationally, the major hotels and resorts in The Bahamas – especially in New Providence, where Nassau is located, and Paradise Island (connected to Nassau by a bridge), where the Atlantis Resort is located – will have an up-hill struggle returning to the bumper tourism success they were enjoying prior to COVID-19.
The same is true for the Grand Lucayan Resort and the other smaller hotels in Freeport that are the mainstay of Grand Bahama’s tourism industry’s accommodations, which have been impacted by Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19.
In a recent commentary, I commented on the excellent suggestions made by attorney Fred Smith, QC, on the best approach to restoring the economic health of The Bahamas in the aftermath of the destructive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview with Neil Hartnell, Business Editor of The Tribune, Smith indicated that reviving the infrastructure of Freeport, which was designed to support 300,000 people, was the “silver lining” amid the economic and health crisis caused by COVID-19.
“Every pandemic has a silver lining and for The Bahamas that is the opportunity to take advantage of the infrastructure that is lying fallow and, unfortunately, disintegrating, in Freeport,” Mr. Smith was quoted as saying. “…I think that given the post-Dorian and post-COVID environment, it presents the government with one more — and, I think, last — opportunity to take a bold step to not only resurrect Freeport’s economy but inject a long-term resurgence into the Bahamian economy.”
Mr. Smith argued that the Hawksbill Creek Agreement — with its framework of investment incentives, coupled with Freeport’s status as a ‘free port’ and proximity to Florida and the US east coast — provided a strong foundation on which The Bahamas could diversify and rebuild its economy if the Government were to move away from its Nassau-centric approach.
“Regrettably, few — if any — Cabinet ministers and MPs have any real appreciation for the scale of the investment that has accrued, and infrastructure that has been lying dormant in Freeport from the late 1970s and early 1980s,” Smith added. “I don’t know how many of them have taken a boat tour through the Lucayan Waterway or the other canal systems that exist — the Bell Channel, Fortune Bay, Silver Cove and Bahama Reef — just to name a few. Freeport is the Venice of the Caribbean.”
As I further noted in that commentary, Mr. Smith’s assessment of Freeport’s potential to be the nucleus for restoring The Bahamas’ economic health in many respects is based on the fact that as the Managing Partner of Callenders & Co Freeport Chambers, he did extensive legal work for the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), under the visionary leadership of Edward St George, the late chairman of the GBPA), who died in December of 2004.
The GBPA is currently managed by an Executive Committee, headed by Sarah St. George, as Acting Chairman, and Ian Rolle as President. The Executive Committee has been doing an excellent job responding to the challenges wrought by Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19, and hopefully they will include some of the excellent suggestions made by Mr. Smith in their future decision-making for Freeport’s overall economic recovery.
