Visitor arrivals to The Bahamas have generally taken an upward turn in the last six months, and Director General of Tourism Joy Jibrilu said her ministry is hopeful that this trend will continue.
Figures released by The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) yesterday revealed that air arrivals for the first quarter of this year hiked by 2.2 percent compared to the same period last year.
This jump equates to 8,000 more air arrivals than the previous year, bringing the figure to 384,324 air arrival visitors within that period.
However, on the contrary, cruise ship passenger arrivals throughout that same time period saw a slight decrease.
According to Mrs. Jibrilu, this dip can be attributed to inclement weather.
“In the first quarter of 2016, we saw a downturn of 1.3 percent in cruise passengers:1,377,752 cruise visitors in the first quarter of 2016 as compared to 1,396,240 in the first quarter of 2015. This slight decline in cruise passenger numbers is due to a brief period of inclement weather in early 2016 when certain cruise ships could not anchor off their private islands,” she explained.
However, the director general noted that since that period, there has been an upward turn in both cruise and air arrivals.
Meantime, Mrs. Jibrilu attributes Tourism’s overall success to the ministry’s marketing strategies and initiatives over the past year as she assured there are more of the sort to come, in an attempt to stimulate even more growth.
“We have crafted a marketing campaign to capitalize on the distinctiveness of each of our major island destinations. Rather than promoting our destination as a unitary block, ‘The Islands of The Bahamas’, we now feature 16 island groupings, each with its own unique personality. Today, I am very pleased to unveil before you the new Bahamas posters that we have produced for each major island destination within the Islands of The Bahamas – 16 posters; one for each of the 16 island destinations,” said Mrs. Jibrilu.
The director general said her ministry’s optimism is not solely based on local reports, but international feedback on the country’s tourism product as well.
The World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) 2016 Annual Research Report projected that The Bahamas’ total contribution of travel and tourism will increase by 2.6 per cent this year.
“The Caribbean Tourism Quality Index Resonance Report measures tourism’s supply-side performance and competitiveness in 28 destinations across the Caribbean. The absolute rankings are based on the total number of very good or excellent experiences in each country according to thousands of visitor reviews on Trip Advisor and other leading social media channels. According to the 2016 Caribbean Tourism Quality Index Resonance Report, The Bahamas ranked among the top 10 Caribbean countries in culture, entertainment, culinary and adventure, and “leapfrogged” Jamaica to claim the number four spot in absolute rankings,” she said.
“The Bahamas ranks number one out of all English speaking countries in the region. The Bahamas attracts the second highest number of visitors to the Caribbean, and ranks first overall for food and drink experiences. The report notes that development in the hotel sector still continues despite Baha Mar’s delay in opening,” she continued.
Mrs. Jibrilu assured that MOT will continue to put measures in place to grow tourism in The Bahamas.
