Pintard looks to protect Bahamas’ sports tourism reputation

Pintard looks to protect Bahamas’ sports tourism reputation

In an effort to maintain The Bahamas’ reputation as a sports tourism destination, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, along with three other Cabinet ministers over the weekend, met with senior government officials in a multi-ministerial meeting on sports in The Bahamas.

According to Pintard, he met with Minister of Tourism and Aviation the Hon. Dionisio D’Aguilar, Minister of Education the Hon. Jeffrey Lloyd, Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources Renward Wells, and pertinent stakeholders, as they all had some dimension of sports in their portfolios.

“The goal now is to coordinate our efforts to reduce scheduling conflicts, pool resources to save taxpayers’ dollars, and to ensure that, while we might attract more people to this destination, to ‘put heads in beds’. We are also concentrating on the development of the particular sporting discipline,” Pintard said.

“Among the various items discussed, they examined the master calendar for The Bahamas’ sporting events, pacing of the holding of the events to reduce burnout of competitors, and the various competition between schools with a view to rationalizing the monetary costs to the government, organizers, and stakeholders.”

Along with the sporting schedule, Pintard added that the idea of a new subvention policy for athletes was also discussed.

“We were looking at subvention, on how we might support our athletes – whether through developmental programmes, subvention, employment, fees for their being spokespersons, [as well as] to look at our online presence, so that you are able to garner information and interact with the sporting ministry and any other sports initiative in the country online,” he said.

The issue of funding in general for local and international events, he said, is also under consideration.

About Randy Smith

Randy Smith is the producer of the widely-watched local television show “Beyond The Headlines” and the web content manager of Eyewitness News. He joined Eyewitness News as a sportscaster in 2018, a role he still performs, and has previously covered a slew of international sporting events, including the 2015 Pan American Games, the Nike EYBL Showcase, several IAAF World Relays, the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, the Commonwealth Youth Games, the Bahamas Bowl and multiple CARIFTA Swimming and Track & Field Championships. Randy has been recognized by the Bahamas Press Club with awards for “Best Sports Broadcast” as a sportscaster and “Best TV Talk Show” as a producer.