Despite government promises to build the tourist industry in Freeport, all attention to economic expansion has been on the port. A meeting of business owners has been told that they are responsible for finding ways to create attractions to invigorate tourism on Grand Bahama. A local architect and entrepreneur, speaking at the Rotary Club of Lucaya, said: "For the vast majority of the Freeport populace and for the government, Freeport's primary business is as a tourist destination. Unfortunately, it is a tourist destination only in our imagination."

Patrick A Rahming added, "The business of tourism neither commands the city's attention nor is there any indication of a strategic plan for the development of that business. There was a plan for the building of a tourism business in the original Freeport. It was based upon a themed resort experience, carved out of the pine barrens." Commenting that a good transport system, accommodation and a hospitality infrastructure is necessary for a tourist destination, Rahming stated that there was no longer golf on offer and that the one casino did not measure up as an attraction.

In 2005 the Isle of Capri requested the government to grant tax concessions and financial assistance with marketing the casino resort of Our Lucaya as tourism to Grand Bahama was falling. The company later made a decision to pull out of The Bahamas on 1 June 2007, but at the beginning of May that year reached agreement with the government to continue the Freeport operation at Our Lucaya. Isle of Capri won both tax concessions and marketing assistance and in return the jobs of nearly 1,000 locals are safe at present.

Rahming called tourism the most lucrative business on the planet but told the assembled businessmen that Freeport must create and develop attractions to make a realistic brand proposition as a tourist destination. “The business of a tourist destination is to provide place-specific experiences to visitors. The device for providing those experiences is called an attraction and there are many types of attractions as there are ideas, but they fit under the five basic categories of retail, event, resort, place and virtual attraction." (E-02.21.08)

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