The Bahamas is well on its way to hitting a homerun in the tourism sector this year with tourism officials predicting a record-breaking visitor count of more than five million, if business continues on its strong upward trend.
ﾠ
The most recent statistics indicate that The Bahamas welcomed an estimated 2.4 million visitors during the first five months of the year, an increase over the same period last year when the figure stood at just over 2 million.
ﾠ
Director General of Tourism Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace recently disclosed that overall stopover visitors have increased by six percent while cruise visitor arrivals shot up by 20 percent.
ﾠ
In New Providence, air arrivals climbed by six percent.
ﾠ
Air arrivals in Grand Bahama, meanwhile, experienced a 15 percent increase.
ﾠ
ﾓThere is no doubt that when we start looking at it, The Bahamasﾒ prospects for the future are phenomenal in tourism, so we find that this is the most exciting business on earth right now and the opportunities that we have in The Bahamas are probably more exciting than just any place that I can imagine,” said Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace, who was a guest on the local financial talk show, You & Your Money.
ﾠ
Deputy Director General of Tourism Vernice Walkine told the Bahama Journal Wednesday that such optimism is attributed to several factors.
ﾠ
ﾓThe Bahamas has been extremely fortunate,” she said.
ﾠ
“This is a year when Americans generally tend to stick closer to home, but more and more of them are traveling, feeling that they are entitled to vacations, and we are the beneficiaries of that. We are a known quantity and are generally perceived as a safe destination.”
ﾠ
Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, however, recently shot down growing optimism in Grand Bahama’s tourism product, stating out that while that island’s economy is generally better, its tourism industry “is not in good shape.”
ﾠ
According to Mr. Ingraham, some hotel properties on the island are losing money, while others are “barely surviving”, despite indications that Grand Bahama’s hotel occupancy rates and earnings are also up over 2003.
ﾠ
Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace has, however, pointed out that while 2004 may prove a record-breaking year for the country’s tourism industry, there is a need for more talk about economic benefits per capita as opposed to headcounts.
ﾠ
“We need to have a better connection between our local economy and the tourist spend,” he said.
ﾠ
“We still import too much of what the visitor consumes in The Bahamas. And part of our mission is to spend a lot more time not just simply bringing the numbers here to our doorstep, but making certain that the economy is better plugged in, so there is no doubt that you can get many rounds of that expenditure in our economy before it goes back out. That’s what economic development is all about and we will be focusing a great deal more on that from here on in.”
ﾠ
He also spoke of the need for customer satisfaction to improve.
ﾠ
A recent tourism survey indicated that around 70 percent of visitors would recommend The Bahamas to a friend or relative. But officials want to see that figure climb to 95 percent.
ﾠ
“We have a lot of work to do as a country and part of the reason we began to publish this data is to let everyone in The Bahamas know that they’re all part of the tourism team and we want them to help us improve conditions.” Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace said.
ﾠ
“ﾅWhen you get about 95 percent of your customers saying positive things about your product you are pretty much on a self sustaining basis.”
ﾠ
The Tourism Ministry has undertaken several initiatives to fulfill this goal, including the implementation of a customer service training programme for persons throughout the industry like hair braiders, surrey drivers, service providers, jet-ski operators, airport porters and taxi drivers.
Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahamas Journal
