Bahamas Economy

Tourists' and Pirates' Contribution to the Bahamas economy

Over the years, the Bahamas economy heavily relied on its geography and location. Its complicated group of islands as well as its position being close to the America turned it to be ideal for smugglers and pirates during the period of the formative years of the archipelago.

The earliest cultures to reside in the island of Bahamas were the native Lucayans, and then come the Eleutheran Puritan Adventurers. To survive and sustain, they had to lean on their possessed craft and farming skills. In the era of 1600s until 1700s, privateers and pirates flooded the waters throughout the island. The ships boarded by famous figures like Calico Jack, Sir Henry Morgan and Blackbeard stole tons of silver, gold and goods coming from trade ships in the area. Blackbeard solely was alleged to have looted 40 ships.

On the other hand, loyalists who run off the territorial waters for the island of the Bahamas brought shipbuilding and farming skills to the archipelago. The piracy problem had already been contained yet smuggling turned as a chief economic help for the Bahamas and the Nassau. There was also a sponge-harvesting industry yet it weakened shortly when the Prohibition period ended in 1934.

The Bahamas economy saw huge and major advantages when the American visitors were forbidden from going to Cuba in the year 1961. They could not take short trips to Cuba anymore so tourists would hop short flights from Miami to one of the Bahamas' islands. Until such, cruise ship services in Nasau improved while hotels and other facilities for the tourists were progressively modernized and built up.

Presently, the Bahamas tourism gives about 60 percent of the archipelago's total GDP. Tourism-related employments are employed to approximately 50 percent of the country's workforce. There is also a strong monetary sector of the Bahamas. Their primary exports include rum, pharmaceuticals, as well as refined petroleum goods. The Bahamian currency, which is in dollar, is the same as the dollar of the United States.

Typically, the Bahamas economy follows the patterns that of the United States. And similar to other nations of the Caribbean, the Bahamas economy is heavily boosted through their tourism, which gives income and valuable jobs to the Bahamians.

Self-sufficiency has become a significant attitude that the Caribbean governments believed every island must have; yet, the Bahamas is also encouraging e-commerce system as the newest Bahamas economy development step.