Saturday, February 20, 2010
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Tourism chief defends film project By Inderia Saunders ~ Guardian Business Reporter ~ inderia@nasguard.com: Protests over a $300,000 project which is flying 14 UK filmmakers in to showcase The Bahamas have been described as "highly regrettable" by the director general for Tourism. "It's a very important exercise for us, which we believe will reap tremendous benefits for us," Vernice Walkine told Guardian Business. "This is about third party endorsement [and] not about Bahamians talking about The Bahamas, which [may not seem] as credible. "But, clearly that didn't resonate with everyone and that's very unfortunate." Her statements center around recent protests about the Ministry of Tourism launch of a near $300,000 initiative centered around a U.K. film project distinguishing the islands of The Bahamas in an effort to boost arrivals from that destination. The project will use 14 film makers from that destination who are eager to shoot the three to five minute films, which will be shown in cinemas around the U.K. Local protesters last week were upset that Bahamian film makers weren't used for such a project. The group of filmmakers have been shooting for over one week now and are expected to wrap up their projects in another week. Officials intend to judge the success of the initiative by the degree people go online to book vacations and the number of cinemas in the U.K. that pick up the films to show as a preview in their theaters. U.K. District Sales Manager Giovanni Grant said deals were already being made in this direction. The islands that have been chose to be showcased are: Abaco, Andros, Eleuthera, Harbour Island, San Salvador, Exuma, Crooked Island, Inagua, Mayaguana, Long Island, Cat Island, Bimini, Grand Bahama and New Providence.
Monday February 08, 2010 |
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