The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism along with representatives from the Grand Bahama Island Tourism sector recently teamed up to conduct an aggressive Public Relations and Sales mission throughout the cities of Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and met with key influencers in the private and public sectors, travel agents and media houses to promote new direct and non-stop air service to Grand Bahama Island.

The direct services from the RDU and PIT airports will take place throughout the month of October. Bahamasair is using a 737-400 150 passenger Jet, for the two hour international flights. The Packages including air, hotel accommodations, and ground transportation are being provided by Vacation Express, using six properties on Grand Bahama including two all-inclusive resorts.

The PR and Sales Missions have taken place in a number of cities across the U.S. over the past months. On the most recent mission through Raleigh/Durham and Pittsburgh, the team visited with Convention and Visitor Bureaus in the various cities, and in addition to media appointments and sales calls, paid courtesy calls on Mayor’s William Bell, Durham, NC and Nancy McFarlane, Raleigh, NC. Both Mayors were personally invited to visit Grand Bahama Island on one of the October flights.

The packaged programs with Vacation Experess which began in May, has resulted positively for Grand Bahama, yielding an exponential increase in airlift by over 33% with stronger market positioning for the island.