An investigation into the economic effect of the Baha Mar resort and casino on the Bahamian economy?
Introduction
The Bahamas is one of the wealthiest Caribbean countries with an economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Tourism together with tourism-driven construction and manufacturing accounts for approximately 60% of GDP and directly or indirectly employs half of the archipelago's labor force. In 2008, 4.6 million tourists visited The Bahamas, 85% from the United States. The number of visitors declined in 2009 due to the global economic crisis, but by December 2010, The Bahamas once again enjoyed 5 million visitors. This was a 4.5% year-on-year decrease from 2007. The financial services constitute the second-most important sector of the Bahamian economy and, when combined with business services, account for about 36% of GDP.
Many other industries despite government incentives have little to no effect on increasing growth and development. The economy shrank at an average pace of 0.8% annually in 2007-11, and tourism, financial services, and construction remained weak. The national debt is growing from the increase in government expenditure, a narrow revenue base, and heavy dependence on customs and property taxes have led to prospects of limited growth for The Bahamas. The Bahamas is dependent upon international trade, the country imports nearly all its food and manufactured goods from the United States and other countries. The Bahamas suffers from a deficit in the balance of payments, imports accounted for $2.882 billion and exports of $790 million in 2012. The Bahamas has experienced an economic downturn as a result of the worldwide economic recession. The quantity of tourists dropped significantly during the...
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...tional visitors to The Bahamas. For every $1 granted in concessions to Baha Mar, the Government will receive an estimated $4.70 of cumulative tax revenues. For every $1 granted for concessions to Baha Mar, $30.40 in revenues will be added to the cumulative total of GDP. From the report the government will receive an increase in revenue covering the national debt and allows for expenditure on economic development such as infrastructure, education, health care. Expenditure on these causes increases in education which increase the well-being of people creating a positive externality on the people where they are able to communicate better and contribute to development of country. Improvements in health care causes a decrease in the number of deaths in the country because public health has the technological advantage to save more lives and increase economic development.
...are tourism, bauxite, textiles, and food processing. Jamaica also produces a lot of agriculture, such as sugarcane, bananas, coffee, and citrus.
The World Bank. The Road to Sustained Growth in Jamaica. Washington, DC: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, 2004. Print
Tourism impacts can be generally classified into seven categories with each having both positive and negative impacts. These impacts include; economic, environmental, social and cultural, crowding and congestion, taxes, and community attitude. It is essential for a balance on array of impacts that may either positively or negatively affect the resident communities. Different groups are concerned about different tourism impacts that affect them in one way or another. Tourism’s benefits can be increased by use of specific plans and actions. These can also lead to decrease in the gravity of negative impacts. Communities will not experience every impact but instead this will depend on particular natural resources, development, or spatial patterns (Glen 1999).
Tourism is considered as one of the main sources of revenue for Cuba. Every year Cuba attracts over 2 million people. This island is home to beautiful beaches and colonial architecture.
Jamaica produced milk, spices, bananas, and other crops which increased the national income since they could export. Although the IMF offers financial support, it controls how to spend, how much and on what. The IMF was supposed to help Jamaica, but instead there were structural adjustments imposed, which is when the IMF made Jamaica a free market. An example is privatization, where the state does not like funding public institutions. Because of this, there are no new schools, a lack of public spending and minimalistic hospitals offered to the citizens.
Jamaica is home of the phrase “be happy, don’t worry,” and is a popular tourist spot that foreigners escape to for a temporary slice of paradise. Given the success of the tourist industry, it is easy to mistake Jamaica as a thriving country with the locals living blissfully in paradise; the clip from “Life and Debt” completely dispels these notions and introduces the negative effects that have developed from free trade policies that were recommended by the International Monetary Fund. International Monetary Fund representatives in the clip present globalization and free trade as a form of economic liberation that would bring Jamaica economic success despite its small size. An IMF representative in the clip states that, “Jamaica is a very small
Kitts and Nevis has gathered momentum, with real GDP growing at an estimated 3.8 percent in 2013 reflecting a pickup in tourism, a strong expansion in construction activity related to large Citizenship-by-Investment (CBI) inflows, a substantial increase in public sector investment, and impetus from the People Employment Program (PEP). Preliminary data for 2013 shows wages increased by 10 percent while employment expanded by 19 percent, mainly reflecting the impact of the PEP. Inflation declined to 0.4 percent at end-2013, and continues to be low, at 0.1 percent at end-March 2014 (y/y). The financial system is stable although the recovery in economic activity has not yet translated into increased lending to the private sector, as banks remain cautious. The external position continues to benefit from the recovery in tourism receipts and a strong increase in CBI inflows.
Although the service sector has recently overtaken agriculture as the leading employer of Dominicans ,ue principally to growth in tourism and Free Trade Zones, agriculture remains the most important sector in terms of domestic consumption and is in second place in terms of export earnings. Tourism accounts for more than $1.3 billion in annual earnings. According to the 2005 Annual Report of the United Nations Subcommittee on Human Development in the Dominican Republic, the country is ranked #71 in the world for resource availability, # 94 for human development, and #14 in the world for resource mismanagement.. The Dominican Republic enjoys a growing economy with CIA World Fact book stating a 10.7% Real growth percentage in 2006 even though Inflation holds a 8.2% in the economy.
...cost levels to export items which as previously stated in turn resulted in the closure of businesses. As the value added tax of Jamaica went through much reforms to encourage possible change within the economy to raise governmental revenue, results from the implementation of the tax however, has added to the national deficit of the country with little to no recovery.
this service company provides a service that is greatly appreciated by local citizens and in
The Hospitality and Tourism sector is characterized as the fastest growing sector in Jamaica. Many tourists from all over the world travel each year because of the country’s beaches, culture, climate and landscape. Despite the contribution of other sectors the Hospitality and Tourism is still the giant industry that contributes largely to Jamaica market share. In this paper, we will call the Hotel that I am employed ‘Hotel A’ for privacy reasons. Hotel A was formed in 1981and has developed to be one of the largest all-inclusive resorts in the country, tackling all factors that impact on its overall success. Some of these factors are political, economic, social, technological environmental and legal factors called the PESTEL framework. “A
Stabler, M.J. Papatheodorou, A. Sinclair, M.T. (2010). The economics of tourism 2nd edition. New York: Routledge.
What makes economic growth so interesting is that it enables a country to do so much more than they are financially capable of to date, through economic growth a country can also help to lower the countries deficit. To date The Bahamas government have invested millions of dollars into the economy such as new roads and highways, schools, hospitals, hotels etc. If an economy makes an investment it is to improve and encourage growth within their economy. In my opinion economic growth is beneficial to any economy although there are a number of hurdles that must be crossed to really feel and see the economic growth. This research paper is to enable a better understanding of the economic growth and how The Bahamas has grown and investments that they have made to sustain the economies developments.
Barbados previously dabbled in the mass-tourism industry, but currently primarily offers a more up-market and luxury product. The success of tourism was traditionally measured in percentage annual increase of arrivals, however this type of measurement ignores important variables such as length of stay or visitor expenditure and seasonal variations. This fa...
At the present time, one of the inseparable parts of the economic growth is considered as tourism industry. Commonly, tourism is the movement of people to other places for business or leisure purposes as well as covers their activities. Holloway and Humphreys defines that the places where tourists come and spend their money are called as “tourist destinations” in other words “receiving areas”. Many countries have been improving tourism to overcome economic difficulties since it is growing fast. The industry activities have been demonstrated a general positive trend in the economy and it has already become the inherent part of economic development. In host countries, tourism has led to such positive consequences as the improved infrastructure,