By ANNELIA NIXON

anixon@tribunemedia.net

The Tourism Development Corporation held a press conference yesterday for phase II of the 50/50 Venture Pitch Competition for small and micro-sized businesses which will award participants from Abaco and Bimini with monetary funds to aid in their start-up businesses.

Monetary prizes include $10,000 for the first place winner, $8,000 for the second place winner, $6,000 for the third place winner. All participants will be offered two weeks of training. Deputy Prime Minister and for Minister of Tourism and Aviation Chester Cooper said the competition has a few goals.

“Firstly, to empower and motivate Bahamians through a tailored training program designed to develop and strengthen entrepreneurial skills. Secondly, to provide funding opportunities to aid in the development and commercialization of new and innovative business concepts and thirdly, promote and increase entrepreneurial opportunities within the tourism landscape, specifically in the tours and excursions sector and fourthly, if I may, to demonstrate the power of the Tourism Development Corporation and the Tourism Development Fund.”

“This incredibly important and useful training is for all participants as the two week training curriculum will be conducted by the University of the Bahamas and will cover introduction to business, finance, marketing, the use of technology, including AI, to construct business plans, visual presentations and social media management. Upon completion of this intense training, a select number of participants will be given the opportunity to pitch their innovative concepts in front of a panel of judges chosen from amongst business professionals on their respective islands in hopes of securing three grant funding awards.”

Entry will open on September 30 and those interested will then be able to apply online. The pitch competition as well as the announcement of the competition winners will be held in both Bimini and Abaco in November. Mr Cooper said the competition would also be a great opportunity for endorsement.

“Having won a pitch of your peers, having been scrutinised by business professionals and entrepreneurs themselves, you would be able to consider winning this pitch competition an endorsement which would get you certainly in the doors at an accelerated pace with some of our other counterparts who provide funding and entrepreneurial support, including the Bahamas Development Bank, the Small Business Development Centre and the Bahamas Entrepreneurial Venture Fund. And of course, commercial banks will no doubt look favourably once they would have seen that the TDC itself has endorsed the winner and is able to provide technical support in terms of getting customers, in terms of structuring the business and in terms of encouraging sustainability long term. So this is a gateway for further funding, further support and further success in business.”

Kingsley Smith, MP for West Grand Bahama and Bimini, gave an update on tourism in Bimini, stating that “the tourist product has grown exponentially”.

“If any one of you would have visited Bimini in recent times, you would have seen that the tourist product has grown exponentially. We have Carnival cruise line, Celebrity X virgin that make a call at Bimini almost on a daily basis, bringing some 3,000 plus visitors every time they land on Bimini and so what we are hearing from those cruise lines are that we need more for the tourists to do and so again, with this initiative I encourage those from Bimini when I spoke to them at my last town meeting is to find innovative, creative ideas, something that is new to bring to Bimini for a greater experience by the tourists.”

Mr Cooper also talked about expansions and more opportunities for business funding.

“We’re building a new incubation centre which is going to be five times the size of this location right here on East Bay street. We are eagerly planning and we’ll launch soon the incubation center at the Royal Palm Hotel in Grand Bahama and then the third phase of the development of incubation centres will move to Exuma and yes, thereafter we are going to build these incubation centres throughout the commonwealth of The Bahamas. So this is only the beginning for TDC and whilst we launched the 50/50 pitch program for Abaco and Bimini today, this is really just the beginning of many, many things that you will see over the course of the next few months. So please follow the Tourism Development Corporation closely and watch for the many initiatives that we will be bringing to the Bahamian people.

“This is open to the public.There’s no limit in terms of the number of persons applying and I will emphasise that this is only just one programme of the Tourism Development Corporation. So there will be other opportunities to apply for grants, for training, for mentorship, youth development programmes for high school and college, and many, many other initiatives that I hope that we will be able to bring to life over the course of the next few weeks and months.”

He added that this particular programme, however, will run until they have reached all Bahamian islands and that it will be conducted in phases.