The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival festival will amount to nothing more than a big concert if it is unable to generate greater tourism spend, the Opposition’s Finance spokesman said yesterday.

“ The objective is not to get

Bahamians to spend,” K P Turnquest, the east Grand Bahama MP, said. “The objective of the Government spending its money was to attract visitors to the island.

“This whole Junkanoo Carnival thing was sold as bing a tremendous addition to our tourism product. It has been admitted that for the $12.8 million they spent they were only able to attract 900 foreigners to the event in Nassau. That is a sad indictment and a waste of the Bahamian people’s money at a time when you are increasing the taxes, and increasing the burden on those least able to a afford it.”

Mr Turnquest added: “From where I stand this again provides another teachable movement for us as a country and the Government that you cannot walk blindly into someone’s vision without testing it, without running the numbers and without tight controls.

“Obviously in this circumstance there was no internal control as someone took their eye off the ball. As they were busy travelling around to various festivals with an entourage, the Bahamian peoples money was being spent.

“What we saw in Nassau and in Grand Bahama was nothing more than a big concert. That event could have been put on by any number of local promoters for a fraction of the cost. I accept that this is the initial event, but to the magnitude of $3.8 million in overruns, getting past the insanity of $9 million in the first instance for an untested event, and only to draw some 900 foreign tourists, one has to question where is the heads and beds they talked about. This whole talk about impact was fantasy from the beginning and it’s not backed up by the numbers.”

The Bahamas National Festival Commission’s (BNFC) chairman, Paul Major, during a press conference on Tuesday admitted that issues with securing a headliner for the event had severely hampered international marketing efforts.

He added that securing international talent was key to attracting tourists. According to Mr Major, roughly 900 tourists attended the event in Nassau with the estimated spend derived from that group pegged at $1.7 million.

In Grand Bahama, it was pegged at $2.8 million due to some 1,200 cruise ship passengers and 300 crew being bused to the kick-off festivities on that island.

    Mr Turnquest said the $19 million direct impact reported by the Commission was largely a redistribution of taxpayer funds.

“You took the people’s money and redistributed it; that is not expanding the economy,” he argued. That is not creating a new avenue for Bahamians to make money.

“You’re basically redistributing wealth and that was not the idea. We were told that this was going to attract visitors from around the world.”

Mr Turnquest questioned why Junkanoo could not receive the kind of cash injection the Government gave to Carnival to create spin-off opportunities for Bahamians.

“We have our own brand. We don’t need to copy anything.

We are saying be smart about the money we invest. Let’s make sure that we have full control over the budget, full control over the expenditures and at the end of the day we deliver the result that we promoted,” said Mr Turnquest.