Top 3 Takeaways

            The most important thing I learned during our ten-day stay in the Bahamas is the importance of a multi-method approach. Being able to ground your insights and recommendations is really important, and having multiple ways to back them up only grounds your credibility. For example, when my group and I were presenting to the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, we were able to say that we are recommending things based on mystery shopping and peak experience interviews. After doing more research, in our final presentation, we will be able to ground our recommendations in mystery shopping, peak experience interviews, online review analysis, as well as an importance-performance graph.

            My second course takeaway is that change in the Bahamas is a long-time coming. When talking to the Ministry of Tourism, there was one common recommendation in all the groups: service should not be as slow as it is. Because tourism is the Bahamas biggest industry, service should be catered towards the tourists, especially the cruise tourists who make up 70% of the Bahamas visitors and have only a limited time to spend. This means that 2 hour lunches and 4 hour dinners should not be a thing. Unfortunately, the Island is stuck in the past, in a time where having long meals was common. When talking about this with the Ministry, it became apparent that this was not only an issue for the tourists, but for the locals as well. Right now, the Island is run by “baby boomers” who are comfortable in the way things are. It is not until people from Gen X and Y come to power that the Bahamas will experience the change that they need. The Ministry, at least the people that my group talked to, was just as frustrated with the service and the prices as us, and it’s clear that they are itching for change that will not happen for a long time.

            Finally, I learned how tourism truly takes over the Island. Food, especially, is highly influenced by tourism. When going out to restaurants, there was not one that didn’t have American items such as chicken tenders and grilled cheese. I can’t say I’m not guilty of ordering such items during my stay, but it would’ve been nice to see restaurants that have only traditional items on their menu. Sure, there’s the restaurants at the Fish Fry, but even they serve a lot of American food. The restaurants that are traditional, like Bahamian Cookin’ Kitchen, are not advertised to tourists. It was hard to feel like I was having an “authentic” experience when I couldn’t really afford to eat the cultural food and would be forced to get chicken tenders or a burger. Looking back on my culinary experience, I realize how important it is to have all these American foods. With all the tourists coming in, the restaurants need to make sure they have an abundance of familiar items for them to eat.

            

Eating Our Way Through Nassau with Captain Ron

From now on, there is one thing that I will recommend to everyone going to New Providence Island: The Bites of Nassau Food Tour. When one thinks of the Bahamas, I’m sure a food tour is not the first thing that comes to mind. While the Island is known for their sun, sand, and sea, I urge everyone to go on this three-hour food tour.

This tour started off on a great note. We got a call from TruBahamian, the company that runs the tours, saying that they overbooked their tour but they’re willing to give my friends and I a private tour later that same day. We jumped on the opportunity, partly because we needed to do a tour for the course and partly because who doesn’t want took walk around and eat food for three hours?! The company’s willingness to accommodate us resonated with my group. We loved that they cared enough to give us a private tour rather than refunding our money. The level of care this company showed seems to be the usual for the native Islanders.

Captain Ron, our enthusiastic and passionate guide, started off the tour by telling us about the history of the Bahamas and a summary of his life. While I was sitting through that 20-minute explanation, it seemed irrelevant, but looking back on it, that summary was necessary in order to understand the reasons certain foods are popular in the Bahamas. After that, we finally started our tour. We went to historic places such as Bahamian Cookin’ and Kitchen, Graycliff, and Towne Hotel. At these places, we had mostly authentic food that would have been difficult to find without the tour.

While the tour was great, there is always room for improvement. So, to TruBahamian, I recommend that they allow the tour guides to say whatever they want. Captain Ron had given us two options: a “whitewashed” tour (where we are given the history of the Bahamas through rose colored lenses) or the real tour. My group, of course, chose the real tour. However, I believe it’s important that everyone learn the real history of the Bahamas, as it’s not something that is readily available, as American history is.

Second, I would recommend that the Conch Shack be taken out of the tour. At this shack, the food wasn’t fresh and didn’t properly represent the love Islanders hold for conch. It’s my hope that this restaurant be replaced with one that better represents how good conch can be, especially since there are many that really understand how conch is supposed to be prepared.

Overall, I don’t have many recommendations for the tour. Captain Ron has a really good understanding of the history behind the food, and the passion he holds for these tours and educating people only makes it better. If anyone finds themselves in New Providence, make sure to take a tour with Captain Ron!