The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas has experienced the greatest regional improvement in its tourism brand positioning, a consultancy’s survey moving this nation up four spots to 12th in the Americas.

Bloom Consulting, a nation and destination branding firm, said the Bahamas’ jump in the rankings was based on the total number of global online searches that hit on this destination (Digital Demand), plus its tourism strategy rating.

“The Bahamas has experienced the highest improvement in the region, jumping four positions, thanks to its great Digital Demand - D2 - and CBS rating performance,” the Bloom Consulting report said.

A Bloom Consulting spokesman added that the Bahamas “rises by four places, and places itself as the 12th country in the Americas region, outperforming Uruguay (13th), Aruba (14th), Colombia (15th) and Guatemala (17th).

“The Bahamas is performing very well within all the variables, but especially in the field of social media due to high activity and presence, which is reflected by having numerous followers and likes on different online platforms.

“Besides, the research is indicating that the Bahamas receives a great amount of tourism receipts per year and its digital demand is fairly high,” they said.

“The research also highlights that the Bahamas managed to be the number one country to be related to the online searches about the brandtag ‘cruises’ during the period of June 2013 until June 2014. In addition, potential tourists also highly relate the Bahamas to brandtags such as beaches and diving.”

All of which will doubtless please the Ministry of Tourism, which has invested heavily in marketing the Bahamas online and via social media.

The Bloom Consulting survey also ranked the 59th for country tourism branding out of 180 nations worldwide.

However, there was less promising news on the tourism front, after the Bahamas was one of three nations dropped by Ethical Traveller from its list of top 10 destinations.

Media reports cited by the Save the Bays environmental group suggested this was because of a “grim environmental record, including the ongoing construction of captive dolphin facilities”.

“We have been working tirelessly through the courts, the public and with many of our environmental advocacy partners to bring attention to the importance of preserving the environment that makes this beautiful country what it is - the coral reefs, the sparkling turquoise waters, the wetlands, bays, the culture, the people’s way of life,” said Romi Ferreira, a director of Save the Bays.

“As unfortunate as it is that the continuing disregard for the environment has drawn the attention of a respected publication, we hope that being dropped by Ethical Traveller will serve as a wake-up call for those who continue to allow unregulated development and development that trashes our treasures.”