Tourism officials are anticipating an increase in airlift to The Bahamas from Europe, thanks to many promising discussions with travel partners at World Travel Market (WTM) in London.
The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism is currently working on reintroducing direct charter flights from Italy to Grand Bahama, and bringing back direct flights from Germany. Visitors from both those countries are up six percent.
Director of Europe, Anthony Stuart says senior tourism officials had progressive meetings with tour operators and airlines from the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and Germany during the four-day trade show.
“We are looking at partnering with them to get direct service out of those areas, and where we can’t get direct service we are discussing getting services via Miami, New York, Atlanta, and all the major gateways to make travel from Europe to The Bahamas more convenient.”
If successful, those two flights will add to the European airlift that is already on stream and on the way.
British Airways continues to offer direct flights into Nassau, and thanks to Delta Airlines, many more Europeans will have a convenient way of getting to the islands of The Bahamas next year.
“Through their Atlanta hub, delta is planning to put on a non-stop flight into Nassau which would give connections from 18 different points in Europe so that ads a whole new dimension to the way that we generate traffic from Europe,” explained Sr. Director of Airlift, Tyrone Sawyer.
BMOT has renewed its focus on the UK/European market, which has remained consistent over the past few years, but according to the Director, the numbers need to be higher.
“We expect to finish the year with about 75,000 to 80,000 visitors for Europe, very similar to last year’s numbers. I’d like us to cross the 100,000 visitor threshold from this market, and we can do it because we have a product that Europeans love and many new things coming on stream,” said Stuart.
WTM wrapped up in London this Thursday. Senior Tourism officials dubbed the event a successful one.
