The Ministry of Tourism will be paying special attention to emerging global trends in travel that could significantly enhance the tourism industry.
Vernice Walkine, Director General of Tourism at the Ministry of Tourism (MOT), said that globalisation would result in more intense competition between destinations in the Caribbean region and around the globe for tourism.
Ms Walkine outlined some of those trends that could impact the continued success of the local industry.
Generation Y, which includes people born in 1979-1994, are an important group having over $172 billion spending power. "This is a group of young people globally who are seeking new travel experiences for themselves and their families," said Ms Walkine.
There is also the 'no repeat buyer' trend that includes people looking for new experiences to keep them "interested and excited" as they jet around the world.
More people are also turning business trips into leisure travel, or what Ms Walkine referred to as business leisure travel. "That's one of the trends we've noticed so far with China in particular where without any effort on our part we received more than 1,000 Chinese visitors who had combined The Bahamas vacation with a business to the United States or to Europe," said Ms Walkine.
Apart from sipping exotic drinks on sandy beaches, more visitors are also interested in learning about the destinations they visit. This group is recognised for the emergence of 'edutravel' trend.
Recognised niches in the tourism industry are also becoming more specialised Ms Walkine said. "No longer will we be able to lump everybody into the category of honeymooners. For example we have active honeymooners, upscale honeymooners, and extreme honeymooners. These are people who are looking for specific kinds of experiences even on their honeymoon, so we need to be in a position to respond to that as well," said Ms Walkine. There are also travellers who are looking for more unusual experiences which, in some cases, The Bahamas is unable to provide. Examples of these would be bed and breakfast campsites in destinations like California, the under water hotels in Dubai and ice hotels in Sweden.
Further, a higher number of travellers are becoming attracted to hospitality brands, which in some cases the brand is more recognisable than the country. "We have a case here in the Bahamas and it's called the Atlantis, where people actually book the hotel first and the destination becomes a factor afterwards," Ms Walkine said.
She also outlined strategies that would be used to sustain the tourism industry, including offering attractive business incentives, ensuring managed growth, improvement in a high quality tourism product, implementation of programs to ensure the safety and security of travellers, and encouraging Bahamians to learn new languages in order to communicate with a broader clientele. "We're talking about globalisation after all," Ms Walkine said.
It was also disclosed that the MOT would be launching a number of new brands across the chain of islands where major developments have taken place or are in the pipeline.
"The islands of the Bahamas are uniquely poised to deliver to the world a menu of quality destinations, each of which is able to sustain its own place as a viable destination," she said.
"Through tourism we have caused the image and reputation of the country to be elevated so that it allows for other sectors to do well," Ms Walkine said.
By: BARRY WILLIAMS, The Nassau Guardian
