Bahamas Philately: 1967 Definitive Series – 8c Development

In the 1960’s Bahamas experienced an increase in urban areas due to the increase of 60,000 inhabitants on the island. The country recorded robust economic growth rates that averaged 9 percent annually as direct foreign investment spurred the development of tourism.

A wartime airfield became Nassau’s international airport in 1957 and helped spur the growth of mass tourism, which accelerated after Havana was closed to American tourists in 1961. Grand Bahama did not succeed in creating the industrial community it planned and in the early 1960s gained permission to develop a tourism industry based on the opening of casinos. The Government had aggressively pursued a policy of active development of tourism and marketed the destination aggressively during the 1960s.

Freeport, on the island of Grand Bahama, was established as a free trade zone in the 1950s and became the Bahama’s second city. In the late 1950s a deep water port was created and work started on downtown Freeport in 1959. The Lucayan Beach Hotel was opened in 1963 with its casino. This was quickly followed by the construction of a 500 room Holiday Inn, also at Lucaya, and the 800 room Kings Inn (later known as the Princess Hotel), also with a casino. Nassau soon followed and casinos were opened on Paradise Island and Nassau by the end of the 1960s.