Throughout the book the authors stresses that in order for a country’s tourism industry to be sustainable, developmental and environmental matters must be addressed. In the Bahamas today, the government has introduced a few resort and hotel developments and expansion projects like the Baha mar Project. It is said that this resort will bring the country the economic sustainability it need. At the completion of this project, The Prime Minister of the Bahamas said that “more than 800 new jobs will be created for Bahamian workers all across the hospitality industry. (Lightbourne, 2010) ].
Moreover, Baha mar’s CEO Sarkis Izmirlian, added that “the project also represents a primary stimulus to help bring the country out of the recession and create better lives for thousands of Bahamians”. [ (Lightbourne, 2010) ]. Using the Bahamas as the case, in the book entitled making tourism sustainable, Dr T. Jennifer Edwards said “that in order for the tourism industry to remain sustainable, the government must make major investments in resorts” (Edwards, 2004) .
She notes the importance of this sector as an export in development along with the key environmental management challenges and limitations it faces in being competitive. A survey conducted by the Bahamas Hotel Association gave the views of over 53% of Nassau/Paradise Island and 15 Family Island hoteliers concerning environmental management practices. The study revealed that “mainly small locally owned hotel made little use of environmentally sound technologies”. (Environmental Awareness Survey , 2001).The author further stresses the need for incentive for hoteliers to make use green technologies She challenges the government of the Bahamas to invest in strategies to enforce the law that makes green technologies a preference rather than a option in major hotels such as the Atlantis, Sheraton and Sandals to name a few.
On the other hand, Director of Sustainable Tourism for the Bahamas Earlston Mcphee, said in an interview that “Specific incentives encouraging the use of environmentally sound technologies in the tourism sector is placed high on the governments' agenda (McPhee, 2010).He emphasizes that in the near future hopefully the will be a national Sustainable Tourism Development strategy as the way forward in the continued growth and sustainability of tourism.
