By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
The Minister of Tourism yesterday said there was enough tourism business to go around, as Cuba inked an agreement authorising daily US commercial flights to the island for the first time in more than 50 years.
Obie Wilchcombe told Tribune Business the Government remains optimistic on the prospects of Baha Mar opening, with flights ‘waiting in the balance’ to add additional seats once the project kicks off.
“Like Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean, we are all in search of new gates. We continue to open new gates in the United States. It’s really rich history and appeal that will define your success,” Mr Wilchcombe said.
“There is a tremendous amount of business to go around. You have to do the marketing; you have to be aggressive with the marketing. Our relationships with the legacy carriers continues to grow. Cuba is attractive because of its rich history, but so is the Bahamas.”
The US and Cuba yesterday signed an agreement authorising daily US commercial flights to the communist-ruled island for the first time in more than five decades.
The deal allows up to 110 daily flights to 10 destinations in Cuba, with about 20 of them to the capital Havana.
“We have put out a quality product, and one of the ways to do that is to improve the service that we offer our visitors,” said Mr Wilchcombe. “We are optimistic about the future of Baha Mar. When it’s open it will be one of the best and newest products in the region, and that will bring with it additional airlift.
“There are airlines right now waiting in the balance for the positive news. Some had to pull back but indicated to us that once the resort is up and running, they would be bringing on additional seats and we feel very good about that.”
Tribune Business was unable to reach Bahamasair general manager, Henry Woods, for comment, although he previously said the airline would be monitoring the opening of the skies between the US and Cuba.
The US-Cuba arrangement will allow Americans to travel direct to Cuba rather than transit through the Bahamas, and use airlines such as Bahamasair.
Captain Wolf Seyfret, Western Air’s director of operations, told Tribune Business yesterday that the airline had discontinued its Cuba route last summer.
“We discontinued that. That was in the middle of last year; around June to July is when we did the last flight.
Bahamasair does two flights and obviously it’s going to impact them more than anyone else,” he added.
“They obviously have connecting passengers out of Miami into Cuba, and now that the agreement is signed that will allow a lot of major US carriers to fly directly into Havana without any restrictions. Obviously that is going to take a lot of business from Bahamasair.”
Comments
banker 8 years, 2 months ago
Just like whistling in the graveyard when you are scared.
Economist 8 years, 2 months ago
The fact is that The Bahamas has not been marketing much in Europe so when they see large numbers of Americans going to Cuba they will look for somewhere else to go. Maybe the Seychelles which market in Europe but not The Bahamas ("Bahamas, what Bahamas, never heard of it?").
The Bahamas relies on the US Northeast corridor for the bulk of its soon to be Cuba bound tourists.
For the last 15 years many of us have been saying that we need to spend our market dollars in Europe and else where.
We are in serious trouble. Another reason for a "down grade"
ThisIsOurs 8 years, 2 months ago
“We have put out a quality product, and one of the ways to do that is to improve the service that we offer our visitors,” said Mr Wilchcombe. “We are optimistic about the future of Baha Mar. When it’s open it will be one of the best and newest products in the region, and that will bring with it additional airlift.
No prediction made about Bahamar post liquidation panned out. The contractors haven't received dollar for dollar, instead they were actually pushed further down the creditor list. Nobody got right back to work, China isn't budging. What's the line between faith and foolishness? I wonder if they will post gaudy Chinese symbolism all over the infrastructure of Bahamar too. They've made the historical colonial hilton look so cheap. How sad that this government pushed so hard to wipe out our history
banker 8 years, 2 months ago
LOL at the gaudy Chinese symbolism.
I was at a banking/economic conference in Ottawa Canada, and one of my colleagues drove me past the Chinese embassy there. It was a heritage stone building, built in I would guess would be a baroque style with Gothic windows. It used to be a convent for a group of Catholic nuns for years and years stretching back. Apparently the nuns died off, and the Chinese picked up this wonderfully huge building for a song.
When we drove by, there were Chinese lanterns and all of the Chinese crap that you see hanging from the windshield of an Asian taxicab. It looked grotesque. I hear you about tawdry Chinese decorations.
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