People have been talking about "the potential" of Grand Bahama for years but at the upcoming Grand Bahama Business Outlook, Vernice Walkine, Director General of Tourism will provide straight talk about the necessary pre-requisites to turn Grand Bahama’s assets to advantage and re-shape the island into a successful tourist destination.
"We believe that Grand Bahama, as the closest offshore destination to the United States, has the greatest opportunity to capture the offshore vacation market for the American consumer," said Vernice Walkine.
"My remarks will centre around those things that we believe have to be done in order for Grand Bahama to achieve this potential and one would be the issue of the cost of admission into Grand Bahama, the cost of airfare. Grand Bahama really should be the least expensive destination to fly into in this entire region because of its proximate position to all of the major markets in the United States but in some cases it is three times as expensive so we have to address that," she said.
Additionally Ms Walkine said Grand Bahama is perfectly positioned to benefit from a world-class cruise port and a bigger, faster cruise ferry service.
"So with these things being taken into account...Grand Bahama really can achieve exponential growth and I’m going to be more specific about what we are doing in the case of each of these. We then will use all of these strategies to shape Grand Bahama into the destination that we believe it needs to be and, therefore, we can promote and market it appropriately," Ms. Walkine said.
The highest-ranking woman in the history of Bahamian tourism, Vernice Walkine’s influence over the years has made her a force in shaping government and private policy on the development of tourism in The Bahamas and The Caribbean. In 2002 she was identified by TRAVEL AGENT Magazine as one of the 100 most influential women in tourism and travel in the world.
Grand Bahama Business Outlook is organised by The Counsellors Ltd. and will be held at Our Lucaya under the theme "Grand Bahama Renewal: The Power of Partnerships, The Power of One."
Ms. Walkine joins a high-powered line up of presenters including, C. A. Smith, Bahamas Ambassador to the United States; Zhivargo Laing, M.P., Minister of State for Finance; Giora Israel, Senior Vice President of Ports & Destination Development, Carnival Corporation & PLC; Ian Rolle, CFO, Grand Bahama Port Authority; Gregory K. Moss, Attorney-at-Law and President, GB Chamber of Commerce; Maxwell Sweeting, V.P., VOPAK, Eric Carey, Executive Director, The Bahamas National Trust; Peter Turnquest, CA, and Stacia Williams, Corporate Image and Personal Branding Consultant and Principal of Total Image Management.
The Grand Bahama Port Authority, Bank of The Bahamas International, FOCOL, Emera, Inc., The Central Bank of The Bahamas, British American Financial and Scotiabank sponsor the event.
