Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation Chester Cooper.
NASSAU, The Bahamas--Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation Chester Cooper said government hopes to sign another Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Saudi Arabia to expand cooperation on matters like tech tourism.
Cooper explained the idea of tech tourism in a video released by the Ministry of Tourism, where he highlights government’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia to sign a $10 million loan facility that will help the country to enhance the economic development of the tourism industry, through the development of the Tourism Development Corporation’s (TDC’s) business incubation centres.
Cooper said his government will look to Grand Bahama for the establishment of a tech campus, after seeing a campus in Saudi Arabia.
“This was inspiring because we are at the moment looking at Innovate242, an opportunity to create similar opportunities in the tech space for our citizens,” said Cooper.
“We want to be able to create an incubation centre to support entrepreneurship. We want to be able to advance tech tourism, working in harmony with tourism as we have known it for decades, very vibrant. But now we want to add another component, and by doing so we are going to be able to attract what we call digital nomads.
“We are going to build out tech campuses. And hopefully, we are going to advance the idea of an innovation centre on the island of Grand Bahama. Some work has already begun, but in Saudi Arabia we have been able to see it in action.”
Cooper talked about using tech, like artificial intelligence (AI), to enhance data mining from the immigration cards collected from visitors to The Bahamas.
He said in the video that any exchange with Saudi Arabia will undoubtedly come with the introduction of new technology to The Bahamas. Tourism is already utilising AI to assist with its website.
“We are going to enhance what we are doing here. And certainly by using AI, we have started the process of engaging tech in tourism,” said Cooper.
“But overall, we are looking to see how we can up our game. And by checking out best practices around the world, particularly in Saudi Arabia at the moment, we will be able to glean from some of the new elements of data mining some of the new elements of digital tourism and tech tourism.” ~ The Nassau Guardian ~
