By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE PRIME Minister yesterday stressed that The Bahamas needs to increase tourism diversification to realise the still "untapped" potential of this nation's major industry.

Dr Hubert Minnis, addressing the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) Accountants Week seminar opening, said: "We need to diversify in tourism in order to realise the still untapped potential of our major industry. Towards this end we will create a Tourism Development Corporation to help Bahamian entrepreneurs diversify within tourism.

"As a region we are still working to develop and upgrade museums and heritage sites which depict the traditions and heritage of our people, and showcasing in a sustainable manner the wonders of marine life. Why are we so narrowly focused on serving our local visitors only, instead of focusing on providing tourism services to the wider world? We must ensure greater ownership of our Caribbean and tourism sector by Caribbean nationals.

"When we look at the global companies involved in packaging and selling travel they have hundreds and thousands of employees outside our region, yet their annual return depends on sales within our region. Only a very tiny fraction of their hundreds of thousands of employees are involved in local service delivery." Dr Minnis suggested that more young Bahamians could be engaged in the tourism sector.

Speaking to the state of the Government's finances, Dr Minnis said: "I am pleased public finances are being restored and the annual deficit is reduced by half, even as we make significant social investment in education, entrepreneurial programmes, combating crime and other initiatives to involve the lives and prospects of our people.

"We are dutifully paying off, in a structured manner, substantial arrears accumulated in the last several years. This means more money in the the economy, and for Bahamians who have waited for many years to be paid money owed them by the Government. We must not return to the years of wasteful and reckless spending that threatened to wreck our economy and future."