By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor THE Bahamian entertainment industry has "lost its way", a leading musical entrepreneur charged yesterday, blaming factors such as a decline in standards among sector players and the 'unfair competition' posed by government bands. Fred Ferguson, giving a preview of his address to the upcoming Bahamas Business Outlook conference this Thursday, said Bahamian entertainers "should be first and foremost" when it came to playing both a key role in the tourism industry and the wider promotion of local culture domestically. Acknowledging that Bahamian entertainers themselves were partly responsible for their own downfall, Mr Ferguson said the industry had suffered from factors such as the failure to provide clear career paths for young talent, plus the closure of well-known venues. Noting how locations for Bahamian musicians and other artists to showcase their talents, such as the now-closed King and Knights, had "diminished", Mr Ferguson said the industry was now largely confined to the occasional duet or solo performance at resorts such as Atlantis. "Somehow we have lost our way in understanding what the true definition of entertainment industry is," Mr Ferguson explained. "We have failed a whole lot. "We have diminished the standards we had in the late 1970s and early 1980s. We are partly responsible for our downfall as well. "There are things we need to look at; how do we get the standards back, get young Bahamians in school to come back to the industry if there is nothing there for them. How do you make the industry interesting again, entice people back and show them they can make a living out of it." The Bahamian entertainment industry's decline has effectively devalued the tourism product, as visitors to these shores have difficulty in finding unique, authentic Bahamian products that differentiate this nation from the crowd and give them fond memories of the destination. There has also been a loss of income for Bahamian entertainers and artists, and the associated trickle down effect through the economy. And, from a domestic standpoint, Bahamian culture has also been undermined and lost, with fewer persons around to tell this nation's story in venues that can draw a crowd. "We have to find ways to entertain them [tourists] when they get here. We have to bring back what we had, and take it into the future," Mr Ferguson said, adding that there were "so many factors" that had contributed to the sector's decline. There was the cost factor, with the fees demanded by some Bahamian bands discouraging clubs and other venues from booking them. Such venues, Mr Ferguson said, had realised it was cheaper to hire DJs and simply rotate them on different nights. Then there was the fact that Bahamian private sector entertainers "compete with every military organisations", namely the bands of the Royal Bahamas Police Force and Royal Bahamas Defence Force. These organisations were subsidized by the taxpayer, thus enabling organisations to hire them to perform at no or minimal cost, undercutting the fees charged by Bahamian entertainers, Mr Ferguson charged. "All these different factors are in play to cause the current diminishing of the entertainment industry," Mr Ferguson said. "We have not really established an industry, and somehow we've got to figure out how to make that happen." Bahamian entertainment, in all its forms, "should be first and foremost" in the tourism product, as it gave visitors something they craved - an experience of the culture of the country they are visiting. "When persons visit a country, they go to see what it has to offer. They go to see the mountains, go swimming in the ocean, or go to a club. These things can be considered entertainment," Mr Ferguson said. "Persons wish to go and see a play, listen to poetry. We have the task of telling and presenting the story the way we write it." As a tourism-driven destination, he added that entertainment was an "important part of growth and development" in the Bahamas. "Entertainment, in its broadest sense, is defined as something we can use to amuse one's self, or divert attention from what is going on around you," Mr Ferguson said. "We have not done what we should have done over the years; we have not done what we could have done to develop our entertainment, and power of entertainment. We have a very powerful thing, which can soothe the savage beast, so to speak, through music, the arts, poetry and music in the home." The Bahamian people, Mr Ferguson added, needed to be educated about the entertainment sector's importance, and the need to help it "through the challenges we have now and in the future".