The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian tourism can no longer conduct “business as usual”, a senior official said yesterday, with the industry needind to raise its game with competition “on our heels”.

    Joy Jibrilu, the Ministry of Tourism’s director-general, while speaking at a symposium on ‘The critical role of tourism in the Bahamian economy’,  stressed the need for superior service and a diversified product offering.

“We all need to take responsibility for ensuring the industry’s success because the  success  of the the tourism industry is the success of our country,” said Mrs Jibrilu.

 “It cannot be business as usual as the competition is on our heels. We have got to make sure that we are on top of our game. The Ministry of Tourism has made the effort to diversify our product offerings by adding eco-tourism to our brand. We have also been promoting sports tourism.”

Mrs Jibrilu said the Bahamas Popeye’s Bowl, held on Christmas Eve, had attracted 110 million viewers.

“The Bahamas could not pay for that type of marketing if we had to do that ourselves. It was rated the number two sporting event for ESPN in 2014,” she added.

“The romance industry is a billion dollar industry. We just had a major initiative relative to that, and we want the world to know that we are open for the romance business as well.”

    Highlighting statistics from the World Travel & Tourism Council, Mrs Jibrilu said that in 2013 the tourism industry contributed  $1.7 billion to the Bahamas’ GDP. This contribution was forecast to rise by 7.8 per cent in 2014.

She added that travel and tourism generated 53,500 jobs directly in 2013, with that figure projected to grow

by 5.8 per cent in 2014 to 56,500 or 29.8 per cent of total Bahamian employment.

Mrs Jibrilu said that for the first three quarters of 2014, total foreign arrivals to the Bahamas were up 3.5 per cent over the same period in 2013.

The director-general noted that 58 per cent of  visitors to the Bahamas are repeat visitors.