# Development Board Founded (1914)

URL: https://allhistories.com/bahamas/timeline/1914-development-board-founded
Location: Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas
Themes: main-event

Tourism in the Bahamas had grown slowly since the opening of the Royal Victoria Hotel in 1861 and Henry Flagler's Hotel Colonial in 1901. In 1913 the legislature passed the Manufacturers and Hotel Encouragement Act, which allowed materials for hotel building to be imported without duty, and the Lucerne Hotel opened the same year. Promoters argued that the colony needed a body to advertise its climate and attractions in North America. In 1914 the government created the Development Board, with an office in Nassau and an annual budget of £3,000. Its members, drawn largely from the merchant community, were responsible for promoting tourism through advertisements, information services and public relations. The outbreak of the First World War almost immediately undermined their work: in 1915–16 steamship services were cancelled, hotels were left without guests, and both the Royal Victoria Hotel and the Hotel Colonial closed. The Development Board recovered after the war and became the colony's central tourism agency. In the 1930s it worked with Governor Bede Clifford, and from 1950 under Stafford Sands it turned the Bahamas into a year-round destination. It was the forerunner of today's Ministry of Tourism. At this point in the timeline (1914), the King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Emperor of India was George V (6 May 1910 – 20 January 1936); the Governor of the Bahama Islands was George Basil Haddon-Smith (1912–1914).

## Why it matters
The Development Board was the first government body dedicated to tourism, the industry that came to dominate the Bahamian economy.

Ruler at the Time: [George V](https://allhistories.com/bahamas/rulers/george-v)

Governor of the Bahama Islands: George Basil Haddon-Smith

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahamas_Ministry_of_Tourism_and_Aviation)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — tourism Bahamas](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=tourism+Bahamas)
- [Wikipedia — British Colonial Hotel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Colonial_Hotel)
- [Wikipedia — Emancipation, Wreckers And Blockade Runners (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Bahamas)