Harbour Island, Exuma Named Best Destinations

Source: The Bahama Journal

Two international magazines recently chose two Bahamian islands as destinations of choice and it’s precisely the kind of publicity that would help boost the tourism industry even further, Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe predicted on Wednesday.

Travel and Leisure magazine named Harbour Island as the number one island in the Caribbean, including Bermuda.

Minister Wilchcombe pointed to the benefits of world-renowned journalists recognizing Bahamian islands other than New Providence and Grand Bahama as destinations of choice.

"This is a major recognition given the fact that there are so many islands in the Caribbean," he said.

Another international publication, Islands Magazine, which is published in the United States, named Exuma as one of the top five islands in the world to live.

In fact Exuma was the only island in the Caribbean that was chosen by the popular magazine.

Minister Wilchcombe explained that attracting visitors to others islands of The Bahamas has been one of the main goals of the Ministry of Tourism under his leadership.

He also encouraged employees in the tourism industry to do a little more to ensure that guests return home and tell a wonderful story of the islands of The Bahamas.

"I believe that we could become one of the greatest destinations in the entire world as small as we are," the tourism minister said, "because we have done well during our 32 years of independence.

"So imagine how much we could get if we just took care of some of the little problems that [plague] our nation."

The Bahamas hit the five million-visitor mark in 2004, but Minister Wilchcombe believes that the country can go well beyond that achievement.

"If we market correctly and sustain our marketing, I believe that we can get even more business particularly from the state of Florida and these magazines go a long way in helping us get the message out," he said.

A key marketing strategy that the Ministry of Tourism has used to attract visitors to the islands in The Bahamas is providing trips for well-known journalists from around the world to explore the islands and write about their experiences.

But the minister pointed out, "No one campaign has the great success of growing the tourism market. There has been a combination of marketing strategies which allowed us to arrive at the success we have today."

Despite recent reports on the Grand Bahama tourism market declining, Minister Wilchcombe said that the island is experiencing one of the best tourism rates for a while.

"The fact of the matter is Grand Bahama is enjoying one of its best seasons in terms of hotel occupancy at an all time high; the fact of the matter is Grand Bahama’s occupancy level is going to be high for the next six or seven months," he claimed.

Minister Wilchcombe, however, recognized that had rooms at the Royal Oasis Resort been in circulation, tourism performance in Grand Bahama could have improved.

He said his Ministry’s goal is to get Grand Bahama back to a point when it experienced arrivals of 1.3 million visitors.

Last year, Grand Bahama recorded 700,000 tourist arrivals. The island suffered a significant setback in its tourism product after hurricanes Frances and Jeanne last September.

Source: The Bahama Journal