The Economic Impact of Junkanoo in the Bahamas

ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Economic Impact of Junkanoo in The Bahamas Nicolette Bethel The College of The Bahamas1 ABSTRACT In the 21st century culture has moved from the periphery of economic activity to the centre and in the Caribbean, festivals are important generators of revenue. The Bahamian festival of Junkanoo resembles the carnivals of the Caribbean, but unlike them, no emphasis has yet been placed on the economic benefits of the festival. This paper summarizes the findings of a long- term study of the economic impact of Junkanoo. While the investment in Junkanoo is in excess of $18 million, expenses currently outweigh revenue. Despite high tourist arrivals, the connection between Junkanoo and tourism is weak. However, the contribution of Junkanoo to the wider economy may share some similarities with that of festival tourism elsewhere in the Caribbean. Our findings demonstrated that Junkanoo generates employment and creates linkages among otherwise unrelated industries. It also has a spillover effect on the wider economy, such as fabric stores, TV cable stations and individual vendors. The current situation sees this investment as fuelling economic activity for various enterprises outside the Junkanoo community, but not so commonly within. INTRODUCTION development” (2008, p. iii). Two years later, In 2008, the United Nations Conference on a follow-up report argued that “world trade in Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in creative goods and services remained conjunction with the United Nations relatively robust at a time when overall levels Development Programme, for the first time, of international trade fell” (2010, p. xv), thus published a study on the “creative industries” supporting the theory that “creativity, which proposed that “the interface among knowledge, culture, and technology can be creativity, culture, economics and technology, drivers of job creation [and] innovation” as expressed in the ability to create and (2010, p. xv). This is inspite of the fact that: circulate intellectual capital, has the potential …in 2008, the eruption of the world to generate income, jobs and export earnings financial and economic crisis provoked a while at the same time promoting social drop in global demand and a contraction of inclusion, cultural diversity and human 12 percent in international trade. However, 1 Nicolette Bethel, Assistant Professor, School of Social Sciences, College of The Bahamas. P.O. Box N-4912, Nassau, Bahamas E-mail: [email protected] Acknowledgements: The author is grateful to the students from SOS 200 at the College of The Bahamas, for their input and participation in this study. This article could not have been possible without their assistance. The study was funded in part with a research grant from the Office of Research, Graduate Programmes and International Relations of The College of The Bahamas APA reference: Bethel, N. (2014). The economic impact of Junkanoo in The Bahamas. The International Journal of Bahamian Studies, 20(1), 13-26. Retrieved from http://journals.sfu.ca/cob/index.php/files/article/view/206/270 N. Bethel, 2014. Journal compilation The International Journal of Bahamian Studies, 2014 N. Bethel. The economic impact of Junkanoo in The Bahamas. 14 world exports of creative goods and index (pp. 622-623) of her history of tourism services continued to grow, reaching $592 in The Bahamas. They are similarly absent billion in 2008—more than double their from the Bahamian tourism product. 2002 level, indicating an annual growth Festival and Event Tourism Studies rate of 14 percent over six consecutive Festival tourism is a critical sub-set of the years. This is a confirmation that the overall cultural economy matrix (Throsby, creative industries hold great potential for 1994), which has gained prominence over the developing countries that seek to diversify past 20 years (Getz, 2005, 2007, 2010; Nurse, their economies and leapfrog into one of 1999, 2002, 2003; Picard & Robinson, 2006: the most dynamic sectors of the world Yeoman, Robertson, Ali-Knight, Drummond, economy (UNCTAD & UNDP, 2010, p. & McMahon-Beattie, 2004). Events and xxiii). festivals have been demonstrated to be loci of Closer to home, whole economies (Barbados, economic activity, and as a result have for example, National Task Force on Cultural received considerable investment from cities, Industries, 2004) have been restructured to regions and countries seeking revitalization or benefit from the creative industries. The increased revenue (Andersson & Getz, 2008; Bahamas, on the other hand, has only recently Carlsen, 2004; Clarke & Hoaas, 2007; Finkel, moved to take advantage of this shift in the 2009; Quinn, 2005, 2006). They are global economic landscape. important attractors of tourism and are Among the opportunities offered by the popularly assumed to increase economic creative economy is the development of activity in the place where they are held—so cultural tourism. The 2010 UNCTAD report much so that they have become important foci observes, “Globally, tourism is a $3 billion-a- of economic studies. day business [which] is the main source of The Caribbean Festival Economy foreign exchange for one-third of developing According to the Inter-American countries and one-half of least developed Development Bank “throughout the countries, where it accounts for up to 40 per Caribbean festival tourism is gaining cent of GDP”, and, further, that prominence in the tourism calendar” (Nurse, 2003, p. i). Moreover, such tourism “has the cultural sector contributes to tourism experienced significant growth in the last through the demand for visits to cultural decade as tourist planners have come to heritage sites, festivals, museums and recognize the demand-pull of the arts, popular galleries as well as music, dance, theatre, music, entertainment and themed events” opera performances, etc. More generally, (Nurse, 2003, p. i). Caribbean festivals, the cultural ambience and traditions of moreover, are critical parts of the Caribbean different locations can be an attraction for diaspora. There are more than 70 Caribbean- tourists, especially for those classified as style carnivals in Europe and North America, ‘cultural tourists’ who are more the most prominent of which attract millions discriminating and culturally aware than of attendees. For instance, the Labor Day the so-called mass tourists (p. 21). Carnival in New York attracts in excess of 3.5 In The Bahamas, however, the tourist product million people, Notting Hill in London remains focused on resort and cruise ship attracts 1.5 million, Caribana in Toronto visitors, with an emphasis on sun, sand, sea, attracts 1.1 million (Nurse et al., 2007, p. and casinos. Cleare (2007) does not even 173). mention cultural or creative factors in the The International Journal of Bahamian Studies Vol. 20, No. 1 (2014) N. Bethel. The economic impact of Junkanoo in The Bahamas. 15 The festival of Junkanoo Economic impact of Junkanoo The Bahamian festival of Junkanoo resembles Beginning in January 2009, a study was the carnivals of the Caribbean (Bethel, 2000). inaugurated with the general research Although Junkanoo takes place during the question: What is the economic impact of Christmas season—the two major competitive Junkanoo? Students at the College of The parades occur on Boxing Day (December 26) Bahamas were assigned the task of and New Year’s Day—it is a major street investigating various elements of this parade that fulfills many of the social and question. The long-term goal was to estimate symbolic functions of Caribbean carnivals the economic impact of Junkanoo on The elsewhere. Bahamas. In contrast to other Caribbean carnivals, Methodology: Processes and challenges however, Junkanoo organizers and Researchers in event management have practitioners have been slow to capitalize on indicated the complex nature of the collection the economic potential of the festival, and of data regarding events (Carlsen, 2004; Getz, scholars have focused on the political and 2005, 2007; Hesmondhalgh & Pratt, 2005; symbolic nature of the parade rather than the Mangia, Canonico, Toraldo & Mercurio, economic. Although tickets are sold for the 2011; Tull, 2012). As Getz (2005), Nurse parades, they are viewed as celebratory (2004), and Picard and Robinson (2006) have competitions rather than engines of economic argued, the core of the cultural event is activity. Ministry of Tourism officials believe experiential and unique. This renders it that there is no need to promote Junkanoo to difficult to measure impacts in purely concrete tourists, as during the Christmas season hotels terms. Impact assessments of festivals need are full (V. Vanderpool-Wallace, personal to be multi-faceted (Getz, 2005, 2007). This communication, November 2003). The is particularly true in the Caribbean (Burke, majority of Junkanoo tickets are sold to 2007; Nurse, 2002, 2004), and even more so Bahamians, not tourists. Junkanoo is not in The Bahamas, where the recognition of the officially exported, although Junkanoo groups cultural value of the arts is a very recent appear at international diasporic carnivals as concept. well as other festivals such as the Smithsonian This particular study faced a series of Folklife Festival in Washington, DC. Despite methodological challenges. Initial attempts to considerable discussion and still-born use the methods modelled for the Caribbean projects, none of the current government by Nurse et al. (2007), relying on available investment in Junkanoo seeks to build official statistics and information gathered by economic capacity for its practitioners. In stakeholder agencies, revealed that data about June 2013, for the first time, Prime Minister Junkanoo are not systematically collected by Perry Christie announced the incorporation in any agency. It was clear that the study would the 2013-2014 budget the sum of $1 million have to generate its own baseline data. to go towards the boosting of Bahamian cultural industries (Christie, 2013); but this The methodology developed in an ad hoc money was earmarked to create a Bahamian fashion as these baseline data were sought. Mardi Gras or Carnival and was not focused The initial studies conducted were all specifically on Junkanoo.

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