The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Fewer than one-third of stopover visitors received better-than-expected ‘value for money’ from Bahamian hotels, a statistic that will raise renewed fears this nation is pricing itself out of the tourism market.

The Ministry of Tourism’s ‘Tour Operator and Media Survey’, released prior to the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) annual general meeting (AGM) last week, found that just 29 per cent of interviewed visitors found hotels exceeded expectations on this key indicator.

“The Bahamas overall did not receive very high ratings on hotel value for money. Only 29 per cent or approximately three in 10 stopovers thought it was much better or better than they had expected it to be,” the Ministry of Tourism survey found.

The results were not much improved when it came to overall vacation ‘value for money’, with just 34 per cent of visitors surveyed - again one-in-three - finding that the Bahamas had exceeded expectations in this regard.

“Grand Bahama rated higher than Nassau/Paradise Island in this regard,” the Ministry of Tourism report said.

“The Out Islands also had an issue with providing overall value for money to the stopovers who visited the islands. Approximately one in 10 (11 per cent) stopover visitors to the Out Islands still thought the overall value for money was not as good, or worse, than they had expected it to be.”

The Ministry of Tourism survey also found that 15 per cent of stopover visitors to the Bahamas felt hotels did not meet their ‘value for money’ expectations, a figure that rose to 18 per cent - almost one in five - for Nassau/Paradise Island properties.

As for total ‘value for money’, the Bahamas fell below expectations for 14 per cent of stopover tourists, with Nassau/Paradise Island again leading the way with a 15 per cent ‘miss’

The survey’s findings, will unlikely to be a shock, will reinforce tourism industry concerns that this nation’s relatively high-end, expensive market position is making it difficult to meet - and exceed - visitor expectations.

Doing so is key to winning repeat visitors, and increased ‘word of mouth’ business from returning tourists recommending the Bahamas to their friends.

However, the Bahamas’ relatively high cost base - particularly on energy (and other utilities) and labour - forces hotels to go for higher prices, in a bid to gain the necessary margins and profits to sustain their operations.

Joy Jibrilu, the Ministry of Tourism’s director-general, alluded to the survey and its findings at the BHTA AGM, emphasising that tourists must receive value for money given this nation’s perception as a high-end, expensive destination.

“Satisfaction ratings based on our surveys show that visitors were generally happier with their experiences than they expected to be, while ratings are generally better for the Family Islands than for Nassau/ Paradise Island,” she said.

“Visitors were generally happy with the attitude of the local people, and with the beaches and scenery. However, weaknesses are noted in the areas of service, hotel rooms, food in hotels and litter. The overall visitor impression of ‘value for money’ is a weak point. So, while good things are happening, we can see that there is still work to do.”

Ms Jibrilu effectively warned that the ‘value for money’ situation was undermining improvements and high scores by the Bahamian hotel and tourism industry on other key indicators.

Positive comments from visitors were up year-over-year at 2,019, while negative ones were down.

Yet the Ministry of Tourism survey added: “Of the 1,148 negative comments received in 2014, the top six complaints made by visitors included: High prices, complaints about their hotel, poor attitudes of the people, food (prices and quality), poor service and litter.”

A presentation given to BHTA members on April 3, 2014, in the run-up to Value-Added Tax (VAT), suggested that the Bahamas had already ‘priced itself’ out of 65 per cent of the middle-aged couples market in the key New York and South Florida areas.

Reiterating that ‘stopover’ traveller choices about where to vacation have become increasingly price sensitive, the BHTA presentation drew on a survey of 500 New York and Miami/Fort Lauderdale residents, aged between 35 to 54 years, that was conducted by MMGY Global for the Nassau/Paradise Island Promotion Board.

The survey, focusing on respondents with an annual household income of $85,000 and who had not visited the Bahamas for two years but remained interested in doing so, was intended to measure consumer price sensitivity to price changes when it came to hotel, airline and ground transfer price changes.

Basing these on a couple staying for four nights in the Bahamas on an all-inclusive package, the survey found that the collective $2,097 cost was more than 65 per cent of those surveyed were willing to pay.

Data from Smith’s Travel Research and Internet airline prices showed that the costs for a Bahamas vacation, based on the MMGY survey demographic, were lower than only Barbados and the US Virgin Islands when it came to the Caribbean.

And the Bahamas was 24 per cent more expensive than the region’s low-cost leader, the Dominican Republic, whose combined airfare and hotel rates stood at $1,585.

Aruba, Jamaica and Cancun were all cited as lower cost destination than the Bahamas, leading the BHTA to state: “[Bahamas] vacation can cost at least 25 per cent more than growth destinations.”