Marc Brown
“The Commonwealth of the Bahamas” is considered to be an ideal tourist destination, located off the south east coast of Florida, but in the face of the global recession The Bahamas’ economy, driven by tourism and foreign direct investment that has slowed throughout the world, has been severely affected, but the last two years show a slow rise in the country's economic performance.
In first quarter of 2008, the global economy was hit hard by recession that severely affected the U.S economy in particular. Even The Bahamas could not evade the blow of economic downturn as its economy is very closely tied to that of the United States. This had a direct impact on the tourism and foreign investment. In 2008 the tourism sector showed a drop of 6% but with the revival in the market in 2009 the number of visitors increased to 10% which exhibits a possible recovery in the economy.
The country and her people are burdened with debt but they are struggling hard to come out of the financial hardships.
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But now, there could be a turn of the tide that shows signs of an economic recovery if there are no further set backs.
There has been marginal improvement in both tourism and foreign investment markets. During the initial six months of 2010 foreign direct investment has increased by 3.5%.
Unfortunately there has been a marked increase in the level of unemployment and at the end of 2009 it exceeded 14%.
While tourism activity is expected to recover, the outlook depends strongly on U.S. employment and improved economic activity.
It is anticipated there will be a 2% to 3% increase in stopover visitor arrivals in the Bahamas in 2010 and 2011, but this is pinned directly to US growth prospects as stated earlier.
Precautionary plans should be developed if downside risks become reality in future. As anticipated, US unemployment can have an adverse impact on the Bahamas' tourism and investment plan if the recession continues or worsens.
However, if the improving trend continues, the people of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas should begin to see a sustained period of subdued growth.
The views expressed are those of the author, and not necessarily those of this blog
