Bay Street Blues:
By Chakara Bennett, Guardian Summer Intern -
Nassau, Bahamas:

Concerns have been raised about the dilapidated state of downtown Bay Street, and the impact its present condition is having on the ability of companies located there to attract business from tourists.

"If I were a tourist that came to The Bahamas now, I would make it a one time thing because of the way that this place looks," said Nadine Novella, an employee of Solomon's Mines Bay Street.

"There must be a positive relationship and effective communication among all parties concerned, the Tourism Development Board, the Ministry of Tourism and the merchants. Communication is key," said Anthony Smith, Marketing Manager of Diamond's International, one of the major jewelry stores on Bay Street. According to him, tourists have been complaining about the uncleanliness of the Bay Street area, lamenting a lack of entertainment and pointed out that they are constantly harassed to buy things from locals on the street. One positive, however, was the "Walk Through History" venture in which tourists get to meet a number of personalities and characters from the Bahamian history books.

"This was something that they seemed to enjoy, as well as the live bands on Bay Street," he stated.

During last week's forum hosted by the Chamber of Commerce, the recently appointed Minister of Tourism Neko Grant, voiced his own concerns about the state of Bay Street. "If you were to review visitor comment cards, you would find that our (Bahamas) is dirty."

To improve the image of Bay Street Minister Grant proposed that the merchants in the area make the personal effort to keep their premises tidy.

Minister of Works Earl Deveaux revealed that his ministry was planning to deploy a team of workers to continually clean and maintain Bay Street.

It seems, however, that a great many of our cruise tourists do not believe that there is a problem.

"Dirty? No way! It's beautiful. Had a good time. It was really nice here, especially the beaches. You can bargain and haggle here. I have no complaints except maybe that it's a bit Americanized but ignoring that, there's no problem at all," said Ron Johnson, a cruise tourist from Kentucky.

"I think The Bahamas is pretty clean. It's all natural and relaxing. I mean, sure there are areas here and there that may not be as clean but honestly this is true everywhere you go," Tabitha Bowers, another cruise tourist commented. "You have good bits and bad bits but I really had no problem. You can't expect things to be so perfect. So, I had a good time in The Bahamas, really."