A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

June 29th 2011

Are we back on Gilligan’s Island? It sure feels like it in Staniel Cay How can we be advertising for tourist to come to our island and upon arrival they are unable to sleep at night because of the heat? In addition our guests are deprived of running water which is considered necessities. As a young entrepreneur whose business (like most in the country) thrives on tourism, the inability to provide guests with crucial necessities such as electricity and water is border lining embarrassment.

I am the owner and operator of 3N’s Vacation Services Enterprise, a unique hospitality business that books activities, rentals, accommodations and transportation for our incoming traveler’s. This being as such I am the main point of contact for many of the guests that come in. Thus, I am the person they are saddling with complaints and utter discontent about the lack of electricity available to them on the island. Question such as, “Why don’t we have any electricity tonight?”, “Why does the power go off so often during the day?”, “Where can we get water to take a bath or flush the toilet?” are questions that no landlord or business owner would like to hear from people who come to our country for a “vacation”.

The timing for such a case is quite unflattering being it that our rental occupancy rate is nearly 100%. During our time of blessing we are experiencing immense adversities. The power outage problem lowers the likelihood of our guests returning to the island they were so eager to come to. There were even cases where guests who were scheduled to stay through the upcoming holidays decided to cut their vacations short because their children could not sleep at night due to the heat. To be fair, should we tell the guests “you can come but be ready to live on an island where there is no surety that you will have power at night or water during the day?

The mission of my business is to ease the stress of incoming tourists by helping them to plan their vacation. How can I do this with no water and no surety of electricity? Even I, a Bahamian have trouble coping with the heat at night.

Country heads, tourism is our number one industry we are here in Staniel Cay trying to bring the visitors in, but we need something to bring them to. The tourists pay to come to paradise, not Gilligan’s Island.

Government of the Bahamas helps us here to help the Bahamas with its number one industry. There is only so much we can do. Please don’t make our work to be in vain. We can get them interested in coming, but we need you to help us keep them here and heighten their urge to come back.

The community is growing so the infrastructure has to likewise grow with it! generators that are on their way out and can only handle a portion of a community is not going to do.

Onward, forward, Upward, Not, Backward, Downward, Reverse!

I am proud to say that since the start of the recession, Staniel Cay and its tourism has remained steady we, there were no loss of jobs in fact more jobs were created while in other islands of our country including the capital, people were losing their jobs by the hundreds.

Sun sand and sea yes all well and good but at the end of the day when the guest are done with the sun, the sand, and the sea, they need fresh water to wash away the sand and a cool room or house to relax and sleep in.

Don’t let improper or lousy infer structure cause us to end up having to depend on monthly visits from social services or the National Insurance Board. Put what we need in place we can take it from there we love having the guest here and we love it even more when they come back.

Looking forward to some assistance.

Nicole S. Ferguson
3N’s Vacation Services Enterprise
Staniel Cay Exuma
A Bahamian trying to keep the tourism industry alive!