NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments, and Aviation, Chester Cooper said that they have preempted a number of projects in the tourism sector to stimulate growth in tourism as the country heads into the new year.
However, economists are still predicting a global recession that will impact The Bahamas.
Cooper said that they have strategized and strongly invested in programs that will aid in the success of the growing amount tourist arrivals set to surpass numbers over the last two years.
“We decided that we are not going to participate in the recession,” Cooper said.
“Over the next three months the numbers are very strong, ADG mentioned its in the region of 11 percent ahead of 2019.
“If you look six months out, its also ahead so it’s positive, and as the ADG mentioned we will see additional last-minute bookings so we expect this number to increase above and beyond the 11 percent that we are now seeing over the next three months, that’s 11 percent over 2019 which was a record-setting year.”
The tourism minister added that the country is also reaping the benefits after bracing itself for the reopening of the economy during the pandemic. Cooper said that because of this, the relationship between the country’s tourism sector and its many international partners remains strong.
“This isn’t happening by chance, we have done many marketing and promotional missions as you saw we continue to work with all of the BTOs in all of the countries where we have a presence that team continues to be very strong, that machinery continue to be working actively, there has been a strategic plan in place over the past twelve months to increase airlift.
“We’re ahead on all of our islands, all of our destinations by way of airlift compared to 2019 we are well in advance of 2019 in terms of our seat capacity we have worked with the cruise lines in an orderly way and therefore what we will find is that the cruise lines are making more calls to the country.
“So we’ve worked with them during the COVID period sometimes they had no other places to go and we helped them to craft a strategy with the COVID protocols et cetera we built important relationships with them and we are seeing the result of our hard work,” Cooper said.
