The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Abaco hotels were yesterday urged to “fix product issues” and costs prior to the Christmas season start of Delta Airlines’ twice-weekly Atlanta service, which promises to bring an extra 7,200 visitors to the island annually.

Kerry Fountain, the Out Islands Promotion Board’s executive director, said the goal was to make the Delta service year-round, and not just for the winter season.

He explained that the 70-seater service, which will fly into Marsh Harbour every Tuesday and Saturday, beginning on December 19, was “vital” to broadening Abaco’s airlift access reach beyond Florida.

Mr Fountain said commercial air access to Abaco from the US, which accounts for 85 per cent of its visitor market, is currently limited to American Airlines out of Miami; Bahamasair from West Palm Beach; and Silver Airways from Fort Lauderdale.

Now, besides opening up Atlanta, the new Delta service will also link into the Bahamas’ key northeastern markets of New York, Boston, Washington D.C. and Baltimore.

With this service coming, Mr Fountain called on Abaco hotels and the wider tourism industry to focus on product upgrades, likening it to preparing a dinner party for expected guests.

“Certainly for hotels in Marsh Harbour this flight bodes well,’ Mr Fountain said, addressing a press conference to preview next week’s Abaco Business Outlook conference.

Yet for resorts based on Treasure Cay and Green Turtle Cay, the visitors brought in by Delta will be faced with an $85 one-way cab fare and ferry journey to reach them.

“That is expensive,” Mr Fountain added. “What are the things we have to do to correct that, lower the product costs?

“We have to identify the product issues and fix the product issues before this flight comes down. What do our hotels need to do to attract potential visitors from the US, even Canada, that will feed into that Delta flight?”

He questioned whether hotel websites were mobile and iphone friendly, given that this was how many travellers today did their research and booked vacations.

And whether hotels were ready to handle queries from potential visitors in the evening hours of 7pm to 8pm, when most persons were at home and eyeing potential vacation spots.

“One of the things we realise is that we all come to the table with good ideas and solutions, but we don’t come to the table with dollars to help hotels get it done,” Mr Fountain said.

He added that the Out Islands Promotion Board’s marketing efforts would be in vain if hotels could not implement the necessary measures to ensure their success.

Mr Fountain added that, for that reason, the Board had “stepped up” and moved to locate the right service providers who could help small Family Island hotels. This even involved negotiating contracts with them, in an effort to get a better price, and paying these providers on the hotels’ behalf.

He explained that the $500 per month cost to maintain the website for the Sandpiper Inn at Schooner Bay, for example, was being split $400/$100 between the Promotions Board and the resort.

Room allocation management and general management support were other services of use to Family Island hotel owners, Mr Fountain said, adding that many proprietors often owned multiple businesses such as gas stations and grocery stores.

Emphasising that the Board wanted to make the costs of getting to the Family Islands the same those for accessing Nassau, Mr Fountain said it was also looking at strategies and incentives to entice visitors to Miami and Nassau to think about onward travel to the Bahamas.