The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Government is aiming to approve $5bn in investments by year-end, the deputy prime minister said yesterday, with half that sum having already been given the go-ahead.

Chester Cooper, also minister for tourism, investments and aviation, told the House of Assembly during the Budget debate that some $2.5bn in investment projects have been approved since the Davis administration was elected to office in September 2021.

While this figure was not broken down by project, the deputy prime minister did break it down into islands. “We have $700m in Exuma, $135m in Abaco, $137m in Eleuthera, $400m in Mayaguana and we have, in the pipeline, ready for presentation to the National Economic Council, a $250m project for south Long Island comprised of a boutique resort and entertainment centre and water park,” Mr Cooper added.

“I am particularly excited by the renewed interest I see in Long Island. We will work to shepherd these projects out of the pipeline. You know, my mother is from Deadman’s Cay, Long Island. I assure the people of Long Island that this counts for something. Their economy has suffered neglect and we will work with investors to drive economic activity.”

Mr Cooper also pledged that the Government will continue with the airport revamp at Deadman’s Cay. Some observers yesterday viewed the renewed economic focus on Long Island as a sign that the Government is preparing for a potential by-election given the legal woes presently facing incumbent Opposition MP, Adrian Gibson.

“We are also establishing a Social Responsibility Fund into which every investor will be encouraged to contribute at least 1 percent of the investment to social causes, entrepreneurship and the Tourism Development Corporation,” Mr Cooper said yesterday.

“We are also creating a Digital Assets/Crypto Desk to fast track and facilitate such industry to support the international buzz and energy already being spearheaded by our Prime Minister.” The deputy prime minister, meanwhile, yesterday said The Bahamas attracted close to 2m visitor arrivals for the four months to end-April 2022.

Of the1.933m total arrivals for that period, just over 460,000 were stopovers. “In April alone we had 586,574 visitors by air and sea. Air and sea arrivals through April year-to-date were up by 946.8 percent over the same period of 2021,” he added.

This is not unexpected given that the cruise industry was totally shutdown until June last year. And the gains have not surpassed pre-COVID 2019 arrivals numbers yet. Mr Cooper said: “From January to April 2022, there were 1,435m cruise arrivals. Over 436,000 of that number was in April alone.”

Of those cruise arrivals, “390,241 were from the US, 15,093 were from Canada. We had 5,158 from the UK, followed by France, Germany, Jamaica, Brazil and Mexico... In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted stopover arrivals from European countries that were experiencing lockdowns and flight restrictions which extended into 2021.

“In the first four months of 2022, however, stopover visitor arrivals were well on the way to recovery from this market. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a decline in stopovers to the island but, by 2021, recovery of the Latin American market for The Bahamas had begun and this trend continued into the first four months of 2022.

“Between January to April 2022, 51.4 percent of visitors from all regions were repeat visitors. During the first four months of the year, 69.5 of all stopover visitors came to The Bahamas primarily for a vacation, with 13.2 percent coming for weddings and honeymoons, and 3.8 percent for business.”

The Ministry of Tourism’s marketing efforts for Florida need to be enhanced, as Mr Cooper revealed that the word ‘Bahamas’ gets 500,000 hits from various cities in Florida. He said: “We plan to expand our reach in Florida by leveraging the traffic to Bahamas.com with display ad re-targeting technology.

“This hyper-focused approach will allow us to serve up highly relevant ads to unique site visitors across multiple devices to reinforce our messaging. And we will establish expanded ad campaigns with travel partners like TripAdvisor, Kayak, and others to tap into their Florida audiences, so The Bahamas is well-positioned for potential travellers.”

And Mr Cooper added: “What I found very interesting during my time in tourism is the fact is that we have tens of millions of people living in Florida 30 minutes away, and we get less than 500,000 tourists from this market in a good year. Florida has a population of 22m and is a tourism mecca, receiving 122.4m visitors in 2021.

“In 2021, Miami International Airport handled 13.2m international travellers and is the hub for American Airlines, one of the largest producers of air seats to The Bahamas. Florida residents and the millions of visitors who vacation in Florida each year are key sources of growth to our destination.

“Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando are the major gateway cities for point-to-point travel. They are also strategic connecting hubs for European and Latin American stopover visitors to The Bahamas. While proximity is our competitive edge, we must fix the cost of getting there by air. We will capitalise on our proximity to this large source market by exploiting the lucrative boating, diving and private aviation segments.”