Air arrivals are still down since September 11, 2001, but Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe said Sunday he is optimistic that the next three months will see significant increases in such arrivals.
Up to the end of August after the terrorist attacks on America, the country saw 73,000 less occupied airline seats into the Bahamas.
There was a 39.2 percent increase in air arrivals in September, when compared to last September, said Minister Wilchcombe, who was a guest on the Island FM Radio talk show “Parliament Street.”
“Our projections are that we are going to see September, October, November, December, very strong,” he said. “That is aided by the fact that there is going to be new airlift coming to New Providence and Grand Bahama, beginning November 2.”
U.S. Airways is expected to make direct flights from Regan National Airport out of the Washington area. Additional airlift is also expected out of Cincinati, Ohio and out of Detroit, Michigan.
Mr. Wilchcombe said this will represent an additional 2,300 visitors per week, which translates into an additional 93,000 tourists per year.
“So we are working on airlift,” he said. “That’s not going to be our problem in the future. I think the problem in the future is going to be inventory. Do we have enough hotel rooms here? Because my job is getting the bodies here.”
He pointed out that Grand Bahama had a large number of air arrivals for the first seven months of the year, but air arrivals is still down by about 2,000 from last year, Mr. Wilchcombe said. But he said, “Grand Bahama is also looking very good. The hotel occupancy rate is up…so that’s significant.
“And I think what you are going to see over the next several months is an increase in the number of visitors to Grand Bahama, certainly by air.”
Mr. Wilchcombe said the problem faced by the local tourism industry is the product itself, as activities for tourists is lacking.
One of the things he said his Ministry is doing is to announce a person who will be specifically responsible for improving the activities for visitors.
He said he is concerned that the product is not as aesthetically pleasing as it should be.
“You get to Paradise Island and you see a brand new world. You go to Bay Street and it’s dirty as ever,” Mr. Wilchcombe said. “The owners of stores on Bay Street are not too concerned, obviously, about how their facilities look.”
There are many more benefits the country can and should be deriving from the international tourism market, Mr. Wilchcombe said.
Tourism is $5 trillion industry, with 600 million trips taken every year.
“The fact of the matter is that we sit next to one of the most powerful nations in the world and we can take greater advantage of that,” he said.
