1 week Ago By Youri Kemp Senior Business Reporter [email protected]
Therese Turner-Jones, a former senior Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) executive, said during a seminar hosted by the Organization for Responsible Governance (ORG) yesterday that the lack of hotel rooms in The Bahamas constrains the jurisdiction’s potential. She is urging further diversification of the economy beyond tourism. Turner-Jones discussed the Bahamian economy’s post-pandemic recovery, highlighting a 1.
5 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, and a debt-to-GDP ratio decreasing from 100 percent to 60 percent. She emphasized the need for better fiscal transparency, improved procurement practices, and strategic investments in infrastructure and digital transformation. Turner-Jones also stressed the importance of diversifying the economy beyond tourism, and addressing climate change risks.
“Small countries with limited natural resources like The Bahamas, we have sun and sea which we capitalize on a lot, but it’s one industry, and we can’t really eat our way just on tourism. While there are many jobs associated with the tourism sector, and there are ancillary jobs coming out of the financial sector, we know that the average Bahamian now graduating from university has other ideas about things that they want to do, and because of technology, we can think about economic opportunities that are outside of these two sectors.” Further saying that the post-pandemic is strong in the country and throughout the region, she added: “There was a double-digit pickup in early 2021/2022, and now we’re seeing sort of an adjustment to the mean, which is around 1.
52 percent of the Bahamian economy. “Now, that’s okay, but it’s not fantastic, but it’s driven again mostly by tourism. Having left The Bahamas for many years and coming back after 30 years and seeing the fact that the economy, to me, seems to be still extremely heavily dependent on tourism as a driver, it’s not easy to diversify an economy.
” She further noted: “I’ve also heard it come from officials of tourism, that our potential to grow the stopover component of our visitors is constrained by the number of hotel rooms, and the fact that we haven’t been able to expand our hotels. There hasn’t really been any major hotel since Baha Mar..
. at least not in New Providence, where most of our visitors arrive. That is a constraint on how much further we can grow.
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