The Bahamas is gearing up to host 71 countries at the sixth annual Commonwealth Youth Games next summer.

Organizers are hoping that the multi-discipline games will build relationships among the young athletes in the Commonwealth as well as introduce The Bahamas to scores of potential new visitors.

“The games, which are scheduled to be held on July 19-23 2017, will mark the sixth edition of the Commonwealth Games,” said Grafton Ifill, deputy managing director of the Commonwealth Youth Games Local Organizing Committee (CYG LOC), during a press conference last week.

“These games are expected to bring together 1,000 athletes from 71 commonwealth countries.

The athletes will fall between the ages of 14 to 18 competing in nine disciplines including athletics, swimming, rugby, cycling, judo, boxing, tennis, beach volleyball and beach soccer.”

During the press conference, the committee unveiled the official logo of the event and held an official flag raising ceremony.

Director of sports Tim Munnings said the Ministry is expecting The Bahamas to benefit from significant economic impact.

“It was reported when we had the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) relays where we had about 40 countries participating that the economic impact calculated was $25 million,” he said.

“This event will host almost twice that number of countries so you can imagine the economic impact, which should be twice as much or even more.”

The Bahamas hosted the IAAF relays in 2014 and 2015.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr. Daniel Johnson touted the impact the games will have on The Bahamas.

“People are genuinely coming here to find out about us,” he said.

“The last time the entire Commonwealth was here was for the Commonwealth Ministers of Education Conference [in 2015]. That was a huge success for us. Every night we have an event here. Every day we will have nine cultural events happening each day of the 10-day event.

“That’s 90 cultural events attached to this one thing.”

The Commonwealth Games are a “springboard to future Commonwealth Games’ glory; for many, a formative first taste of an international multi-sport competition; and for all, a joyous celebration of high-performance sport, personal development and new Commonwealth friendships made on the level playing field of sport”.