The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedial.net

A COLLEGE of the Bahamas survey into May’s inaugural Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival events concluded that most participants had a positive impression of the event.

The survey’s results were revealed yesterday when the Bahamas National Festival Commission (BNCF) released its long awaited report into the event’s economic impact.

Under the guidance of Dr Nicolette Bethel, COB students conducted the survey in New Providence on Carnival weekend.

Of the 317 people surveyed 43 per cent said they would rate the event “very good.” 31 per cent said they would rate it “fairly good,” 14 per cent said “excellent,” nine per cent said “mildly good” and three per cent said “not good at all.”

Asked if they got value for their money, 44 per cent of participants said they got a moderate amount of value for their money. 24 per cent said they got “a lot of value”, 18 per cent said they got a “great deal of value”, ten per cent said “little value” and four per cent said they got “almost no value at all”.

On a scale of zero to ten, more than 70 participants chose seven as the number which best describes how likely it is that they would recommend the event to their friends and colleagues.

Nearly 50 of the participants chose eight, the second highest total.

Indeed, most participants chose numbers between five and 10 as opposed to between zero and four.

Furthermore, when asked about the organisation of the event, more than 110 participants said it was “very organised” while about 100 said was “somewhat organised”.

About 60 people said the event was either slightly organised or not at all organised.

Most of the participants said the event was safe and that the environment was clean.

Asked how much they spent on the event, about 110 participants said they spent less than $50 while about 100 of them said they spent between $50 and $99.

Slightly more than 80 participants said they spent between $100 and $249.

Despite the favourable statistics, BNFC chairman Paul Major noted that there are ways the event could be improved.

In particular, the commission will seek to reduce the number of vendors that participate in the event and provide a better variety of food and beverage products.

Vendors have complained that they struggled to break even during the event, with some saying they lost money.

Mr Major said efforts are currently being made to secure payments for some vendors using a formula to decide how much should be given and to whom.

He estimated that paying vendors could cost the government about $40,000, although he did not say when the payments will be made.

He said: “We have devised a formula by which we would like to compensate some of them for their losses via refund and maybe the fee that they paid and also some contribution toward loss of product.

“And we’ve been reasonable in how we’ve approached that because, clearly, if you were selling handicraft and it didn’t seem that different than if you were selling food. Food is perishable so that’s different to handicraft, you still have your inventory.”