The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

FREEPORT – The new Freeport Call Centre, officially opened by Prime Minister Perry Christie, is expected to employ 300 full time workers in Grand Bahama by the end of 2014.
Island Outsources and Itel BPO Solutions are operating the call centre for the Ministry of Tourism, selling vacations in the Bahamas. It currently employs 65 Bahamians.

The initiative started operations on December 16, 2013 in the Trehl Building Complex on West Mall Drive. Agents answer calls to 1-800-Bahamas from potential visitors.

Yoni Epstein, CEO of Island Outsources, has been operating call centres and providing business process outsourcing (BPO) services to some of the world’s leading brands in the hospitality industry.

The company, which is based in Jamaica, employs 400 throughout the Caribbean. 
Mr Epstein said BPO service is a $1 trillion a year industry. He is confident that the call centre will succeed.

He said that when he first started a call centre in Jamaica with 15 employees, people said it would never work.

Mr Epstein said there is potential for growth in Freeport. He said they plan to have 100 full time employees during Phase One.

“We are already three quarters of the way there, and by Phase Two we are looking at 300 full time workers by the end of 2014,” he said.

Mr Epstein also stated that they have started looking for additional office space.

Mr Christie said that the new call centre has the potential to provide hundreds of much-needed jobs on Grand Bahama.

“What we are doing here today is very significant as it marks the start of an outsourcing industry and call centre in the Bahamas.

“I am advised that Island Outsources… is currently positioning itself to grow providing an additional 200 job opportunities in 2014.”

Mr Christie said 30 young unemployed persons have been hired as call agents to provide callers with the best information about the Bahamas and about travel and tourism options.

He said the agents have received intensive training and have undergone four weeks of extensive product knowledge training, including under the Bahamahost programme.

The GBI Tourism Board, the OutIsland Promotions Board, and the Nassau Paradise Island Promotion Board have also conducted extensive product training on what their member hotels and allied members have to offer.

In addition to training, the agents also participated in mini-trade show and on-island familiarisation tours, which included tours of various attractions such as the Dolphin Experience, kayaking, Segway tours, jeep tours and island sightseeing tours.

Tours are also scheduled for other islands over the next few months.

Mr Christie said that the call centre is envisaged to grow into a “supermarket” for Bahamas tourism products, not just limited to the Bahamas MOT, with the ability to not only give information, but also growing into a full scale “Fulfilment Centre” for all Bahamas products including the engagement of the centre as an extension of Tour Operator Services.

He also said that it is envisaged that the centre will be a satellite call centre for the new Bahamasair/MOT air service, and will sell vacation packages and provide necessary support to customers of the new tour operation from the eight US cities from where they will provide new non-stop jet service.

“It will grow into a call centre for the entire Bahamas – a national call centre whose services we trust will be engaged by most, if not all, tourism related businesses be they hotels, attractions, tours, transportation, etc.

“What we are witnessing today is the start up of this new business venture is part of a greater economic expansion now underway in GB,” he said.

Prime Minister Christie also pointed to the work now underway at the Reef Village and its re-opening as a four-star Blue Diamond Memories brand – as well as the start-up of six flights per week from six Canadian cities to Freeport.

He said these developments will create 1,000 new jobs on Grand Bahama.