In July 2008, Vanderpool-Wallace was dually sworn in as the Bahamas‘ minister of tourism and aviation and government senator. Having spent 11 years prior as an executive in the hospitality industry at Resorts International Bahamas, he undoubtedly comes with the expertise to fully execute a strategy to bring the Islands of the Bahamas into the 21st century in terms of access and infrastructure.
“We have a very special place called the commonwealth of the Bahamas. There was a recent newspaper headline that read ‘This is the Golden Age.’ We believe that. I believe this is the most exciting job in the world,” he shares.
When one thinks of the Bahamas as a tourist destination, Nassau/Paradise Island immediately comes to mind and, in some cases, Freeport is a consideration, in spite of the fact that there are 700 islands in this Caribbean nation. “Nassau/Paradise Island is only 2 percent of the Bahamas’ land mass. We have managed to focus on one part of the Bahamas. We have made the cardinal mistake of only focusing on one part. Now, we are focusing on the infrastructure and development between islands,” he explains.
The infrastructure advancement that the minister is speaking of is improving transportation between the 16 groups of islands and bringing the businesses up to speed by incorporating the Internet to make their services more accessible to tourists and building in Google Earth to increase visibility.
“A piece of technology is being put in place that is the equivalent of a Eurail pass. You land in Nassau, pay one price and then you can travel around the Bahamas by boat and/or aircraft. There a lot of people who want to spend a true vacation in the Bahamas but don’t want to spend it on a 21 by 7 island. This true vacation is a very important feature of the new Bahamas. [We envision] these large numbers of visitors moving across an array of islands, living and loving the island life,” he offers.
“Facebook enables us to do things that we have never done before and [we] feel confident that the people will come to the Bahamas and [their relationships with] Bahamians will grow deeper. There is great variety here for tourists, and the history of people in the Bahamas is profound.”
Vanderpool-Wallace makes his case plain as he expresses his enthusiasm for the new advancements. We will be at a point where we can boldly state, “Why anyone would want to fly beyond us is beyond us.” –yvette caslin
