Bahamas Hotel & Tourism Association

A  major conference to support The Bahamas' small hotel community is being held to help them weather the recession.

The "Small Hotels Working Together for Individual & Collective Success" event is aimed at owners and operators who have 75 rooms and under, and is being hosted by the Bahamas Hotel Association.

A series of workshops and discussions will be held at the Wyndham Nassau Resort on Thursday, December 3 and the key note speaker will be Minister of Tourism & Aviation Vincent

Vanderpool-Wallace, whose speech is titled "Small Hotels: Involvement & Future in a Diversified Tourism Sector".

The Ministry of Tourism in conjunction with its industry partners will provide 110 paid apprentice jobs for Bahamians, according to Tourism and Aviation Minister Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, who yesterday unveiled the first component of the government's temporary job program.

The announcement came one day after Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham tabled a supplementary appropriations bill in the House of Assembly to fund that program. In total, $14.6 million is budgeted for the scheme which will create approximately 2,500 jobs that will last for six months.

At a press conference at the British Colonial Hilton, Vanderpool-Wallace announced that the Ministry of Tourism and the Bahamas Hotel Association (BHA) will place the selected group in a variety of jobs in the tourism sector for a period of six months.