The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Tourism activity in the southern Bahamas has "definitely been down", the Bahamas Out Island Promotion Board's (BOIPB) executive director yesterday blaming this on "terrible" airlift connectivity.

Kerry Fountain told Tribune Business that the Board will tomorrow unveil marketing initiatives for the southern Bahamas, and other promotional activities aimed at remedying the situation.

"There is no sense in crying about it unless you plan to be a part of the solution," Mr Fountain said. "We want to share more specific numbers, and share what we have planned to do ourselves. We also want to share what we are proposing to do in conjunction with the Ministry of Tourism and whatever domestic carriers are out there and have the fortitude to do something."

Mr Fountain said airlift connectivity to the southern Bahamas has directly impacted tourism growth for those islands.

"Business in the southern Bahamas has definitely been down, and I would attribute that directly to how difficult it is to get there," he added. "If you look at Acklins and Crooked Island, Bahamasair offers flights on Wednesdays and Saturdays. All of the inbound flights into Nassau come in around 12.30pm, which means that if you are going to get to Acklins or Crooked Island in the same day you have to leave around 1.30pm.

"The connections are terrible, and I think that the lack of business these islands are receiving is directly attributable to the airlift that we have available out of Nassau Until we fix that all of the resorts are going to continue to struggle."