The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

ALTHOUGH last year “ended well” with gains in overnight and cruise visitors, Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcome said more needs to be done to promote a “sustainable tourism industry”.

Yesterday morning, he explained that job creation is a key motivator for his ministry and spoke of plans for a “significant” new

had-campaign to attract visitors.

“We ended the year well,” he said.

“We ended the year with an increase in overnight visitors, certainly an increase in cruise visitors, but I’m looking beyond those numbers.

“I’m hoping next year we can end the year very significantly and that we will have tourism from January to December.”

Mr Wilchcome said although the industry is doing well – with the exception of Grand Bahama – the numbers are still not to his satisfaction.

“When we consider that we’re beyond Nassau and Paradise Island, Grand Bahama didn’t do as well as we would want it to. The numbers will be up in Grand Bahama this year, but not significantly.

“The other islands are doing much better. Bimini is doing better, Exuma is doing good, but those aren’t the numbers that we want,” he said.

“We have to create in the Bahamas a sustainable tourism industry because it will help us then expand our economy and create more jobs.

“The bottom line here is job creation.

“How many jobs are we creating and how many do we need monthly.

“See, if you can’t analyse that or speak directly to it then I think you’re missing the boat.”

Tourism “can’t just be based on numbers and arrivals,” Mr Wilchcome said, and his ministry is focused on ensuring occupancy levels above 80 per cent year round.

“What we’re trying to do through tourism is ensure that we have a programme that causes for growth and development.

“What you’re going to see over the next several days – you’ll see our new plan and our plan will be very significant,” he said.

“In fact, we are going to introduce an ad-campaign that has never been done in the Bahamas before, that is going to be, I think, fantastic.

“It’s all intended to ensure that we get a message out there to the world that our Bahamas has diversity, that we have much to offer, that we’re more than just a single island – what we have multiple islands with multiple things to do.

“And we’re going to work on our quality service because we have to ensure that Bahamians are delivering the kind of service that is representative of a country that’s proud, a people that is proud, and a people that celebrates who they are.

“Our service should be the quality of our patriotism and our love for our country and our heritage and cultural division.

“We will now be identifying projects and the product to ensure that we can offer to the world our products that no one else has – the Glass Window Bridge or Preacher’s Cave, for instance.

“We are going to ensure that we have a campaign that is significant.”