The Minister of Tourism, Dionisio D’Aguliar said yesterday his ministry’s primary goal is to increase the number of stopover passengers.
In his address in the House of Assembly D’Aguliar said stopover passengers spend about $1,500 during their stay as opposed to cruise ship passengers who spend only $69.
“One might ask, why are we providing millions in incentives to the cruise ship industry when the spending of their passengers pales in comparison to the passengers bought here by air,” D’Aguliar said.
He added that the stop over visitor is more valuable and to facilitate the increase of stop over passengers a number of things will be done including having more hotel rooms via Bahamar and Atlantis Resorts.
“We are encouraged that Atlantis is slowly bringing the 600 rooms of the Coral Towers, which were closed on December 15, 2016 for a multi million renovation and upgrade back on stream. And Bahamar is slowly bringing its 2,300 rooms on stream,” said D’Aguliar.
He said that his government is ready to create unique and innovative experiences that will bring stop-overs to the island.
He added that all investors, both Bahamian and non-Bahamian, who are now thinking of building hospitality related projects, should know that the government is extremely interested in creating employment opportunities for its people by expanding the tourism sector
“I challenge our local entrepreneurs to figure out ways to develop and create fun and innovative and interesting excursions to offer the 4.5 million cruisers that touchdown mostly in New Providence each year,” D’Agulair said.
He said he will be creating a unit within his ministry to facilitate the negotiations between Bahamian companies and cruise lines.
The Ministry of Tourism also has a new public relations company, Weber Shanwick, that D’Aguliar says is extremely familiar with and understands the complexity of marketing a country with 16 different destinations.
“They have assigned young energetic dynamic individuals to our account to assist in strategy, digital content development, social media enhancement, paid and amplified messages on the web and the development of new concepts and ideas and analytics,” D’Aguliar said.
He added that as visitors have changed the way they shop, the Bahamas must change the way it does business.
