The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism is launching a new photography competition for residents and US visitors alike. According to Andre Miller, General Manager of Global Communications, “The Ministry of Tourism is taking a step forward in the adoption of social media by using it to engage residents and past and potential visitors to showcase the beauty and variety of the beaches of The Bahamas. The Ministry intends to increase opportunities for viral awareness of the destination, and this contest is expected to provide a fresh collection of high quality, user generated content which the Ministry will use for marketing purposes.” The competition is an excellent way to increase the fan base of the Ministry, marking it as a cutting edge institution which relies on social media in a dynamic manner. Entries should be uploaded onto Facebook.com/TravelBahamas or posted on Twitter or Instagram –make sure to use the hashtag, #BahamasBestBeaches. The Ministry’s Facebook page and the site, Bahamas.com/BestBeaches, will publish all entries, so keen photographers can glean the talent of the competition prior to ‘judgement day’. The promotion will be officially opened on August 4,2014. The deadline for submission is August 31, 2014. A tip for those up for the winning prize: make your photograph engaging and unique.

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism s Hard at Work

Keen cruisers know that when it comes to pristine white beaches, crystalline waters and an atmosphere that is always buzzing and vibrant, few can beat the Bahamas. The Ministry of Tourism is doing its best to improve tourist numbers further, with Director of Tourism for the Asian Market, Don Cornish, recently announcing his plans to establish a stronger presence for The Bahamas in Asia by opening an office for the Ministry in China, a clear effort “to penetrate that market, considering that the Chinese market is the largest outbound market for travel worldwide now. It exceeds 80 million and it's growing at a rate of about 18 per cent per year.” The Ministry of Tourism is also working closely with the Bahamas National Trust (BNT) to strengthen bird-based tourism. Director General of the Ministry of Tourism, Joy Jibrilu, stated, “The Bahamas has the perfect sites for bird watching to take advantage of the $82 billion industry, which is growing at approximately eight per cent a year with an expenditure of $17 billion. Since 1983, the number of bird watchers in the United States alone has increased by 332 per cent. There are an estimated 46.7 million bird watchers in the United States, of which I am told more than 17 million are willing to travel for birding activities.”

Successful Partnerships

The Ministry of Tourism’s recent partnership with Vacation Express, the Grand Bahama Promotion Board and Bahamasair is likewise expected to bring in thousands of tourists from Alabama, North Carolina, Ohio and Cincinnati, and to extend the average length of stay of tourists. According to Carmel Churchill of the Grand Bahama Promotion Board, the addition of a number of new flights to Grand Bahama has already made an important difference to the local economy: “Since the introduction of the new flights into the destination Grand Bahama is receiving an additional 4,650 new air seats monthly. What it means is that we now have increased hotel room occupancy, more use of our ancillary services and an overall increased interest for the destination in these gateways.”

Targeting Niche Markets, Consolidating the Cruise Market

The Ministry of Tourism is also targeting niche markets such as sports and religious tourism, aiming for a three to four per cent growth from this segment. Harrison Thompson, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, noted, “We are exploring all the avenues to ensure that we get the best results from our hard work. We have appointed directors in all these areas, and we are looking forward to the end result being beneficial for the Bahamas.”

The Ministry has partnered with the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association and recently appointed a new director of airlift. Thompson stated, “We are exploring airlift from Asia, Europe, the UK, the United States and even in the Latin American market, because we believe airlift is the foundation to move from.” Thompson noted that the cruise business was going extremely well, with cruise arrivals to The Bahamas having frown by 76 per cent between 2000 and 2012. According to The Nassau Guardian, “overall revenue generated from cruise arrivals ballooned by over 850 per cent in to just under $400 million per annum over the same period.” Cruise passengers make up almost 80 per cent of all arrivals to the Bahamas, owing in no small part to the ease with which cruises are selected and booked thanks to online facilities and apps, including iTunes app, Iglu Cruise, which allows cruisers to obtain information on top cruise deals to the Bahamas, by providing information on “all major cruise lines, ports and destinations, detailed itinerary information including images and ports,” etc. The ease with which information is obtained makes evident that the Bahamas, seen by some as an exotic destination for the wealthy, has a plethora of options for different budgets and tourist types.

Despite the boom in numbers of cruise tourists, it is important to note that the average expenditure per passenger fell by 16 per cent from 2000 to 2012 and that there has been a fall in stopover stays. According to Dr. Andrew Spencer, Programme Director and Head of the Centre for Tourism Management at the University of West Indies (Bahamas), the ideal strategy is for The Bahamas to “band together” with other Caribbean countries to achieve greater wealth from the cruise industry. If regulations are uniform throughout the Caribbean, cruising companies will not be able to favour one over another owing to more lenient norms.