The Bahamas government quickly reinstated the ‘Companion Flies Free’ promotion after a brief hiatis allegedly resulted in a “30 per cent reduction” in bookings at Atlantis.
The promotion was originally launched last year and was responsible for keeping Bahamas tourism at an acceptable level during tough times.
The program was discontinued in January, 2011, and the visitors stopped coming. By February, there was allegedly a 30% decline in bookings at the Bahamas’ most popular destination, the Alantis Resort on Paradise Island.
The government quickly reinstated the program and the bookings, once again, started to flow. Director-general of tourism, David Johnson, said no decision has been made yet regarding whether or not the programe will continue in May.
The promotion provides free airfare for one person (the companion) when two people book flights to The Bahamas and stay at a participating hotels for a minimum of four nights. The Bahamas government and the participating hotel split the cost of the free airfare equally.
Mr Johnson admits that the program is expensive. It essentially pays tourists to visit the Bahamas, an unsustainable marketing strategy which costs the government and the participating hotels an average of $340 per booking.
The discontinuation of the program may have contributed to the 6.1 per cent drop in hotel revenues in Nassau and Paradise Island in January and February, as recently reported by the Central Bank.
