From negotiating lower airfares to The Bahamas, to re-branding the Family Islands and making it easier for visitors to learn more about the country, the Ministry of Tourism's plan to boost tourist arrivals to The Bahamas entails a multi-layered approach

At a meet the press event held yesterday at the British Colonial Hilton, Minister of Tourism and Aviation Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace disclosed that he plans to do away with many of the archaic tourism promotions that have been in place for years, while pumping new and fresh ideas into the country's advertising campaigns in a bid to make the country more attractive to visitors.

Vanderpool-Wallace pointed out, however, that The Bahamas will take more advantage of its proximity to the United States as he intends to negotiate lower fares and more flights to The Bahamas, a move he said foreign carriers are already on board with.

"It is this whole idea of making sure that the admission ticket, the cost to get to The Bahamas is as low as possible because that is the only way we are going to make certain that our proximity advantage is going to be exercised to the [fullest]. And we are already beginning to do some of those things, and so we are fairly confident that once people begin to see what we have on offer, and they see how inexpensive it is to get here that we are going to get the best kind of results we possibly can under these circumstance," he said.

While he acknowledged the pull-out of many carriers and the rise in fuel costs, Vanderpool-Wallace said what matters to many carriers is making sure that they have the lowest possible cost of operating in The Bahamas.

"We need to address that because the customer is paying a price that the airline is calculating is going to allow them to get the best return on their investment. And second of all, there are taxes on tickets. The customer does not really care how much is tax and how much is really going to the airline and how the airline has to pay to whomever the providers are in The Bahamas once they get here; all they care about is what the price is. We have an approach that we are going to use to make sure that the cost of that ticket is as low as possible and also enabling the airline to make some money," he said.

"The second thing to remember is that the world has changed. With the cost of fuel going up so much short trips on which I can make money now are the places I want to go to. We hope to execute a plan that will cause carriers to look more focused on The Bahamas because we are going to enable them, we think, to have the best chance to earn a return on [their] investment at the lowest possible fuel costs," Vanderpool-Wallace said.

He added that The Bahamas is going to place more focus on four other markets: Brazil, India, China and Russia.

The tourism minister also said the Family Islands are going to be re-branded as individual destinations. Vanderpool-Wallace said for far too long the islands have been lumped together.

"We have been making the out islands look as if once you have seen one, you have seen them all, and there is no reason for you to go there. That is really what you are going to see us do from now on. We are going to make sure that the products we have available are much more differentiated than what we have ever done before in the islands of The Bahamas.

"When things look different people believe they are different and I promise you the difference between Abaco and Exuma, the history and the people, is greater than the difference between many countries in the lower Caribbean. It is a fundamental part of one of the things that we are going to do. The islands of The Bahamas is a region; it is not a destination and when we begin to reflect that in what we do the world will begin to understand what we are doing," said Vanderpool-Wallace.

He said the Ministry of Tourism plans to enhance the visitor experience with a 24-hour tourism office online at Bahamas.com, where visitors would be able to book restaurants, buy souvenirs and even listen to Bahamian music. It's all in a bid to make sure that tourists get the real Bahamian/island experience.

The minister said emphasis must also be placed on the country's beaches and its people.

"Since the passage of the Promotion of Tourism Act more than 100 million visitors have come to The Bahamas and a large part of the reason for that are the people of The Bahamas," he said. "I am tired of hearing so many cases where we are beating up on the people of The Bahamas when in fact when you go and examine what is going on, it is the people that make the difference and keep people coming back."

The minister's statements came amid growing worries about the impact the financial crisis in the United States will have on the local tourism industry and the economy generally.

In a report released last week, the Central Bank of the Bahamas said that with U.S. consumer confidence remaining near historic lows and households making further adjustments in response to the significant erosion in financial wealth, demand for tourism is expected to wane further over the remainder of 2008 and the first half of 2009.

Tourism statistics for the first half of the year showed a 2.2 percent contraction in arrivals to 2.37 million compared to the same period a year ago, the Bank reported.

This development, according to the Central Bank, reflected a 3.8 percent reduction in sea passengers, which outpaced the 1.1 percent improvement in air traffic.

Both New Providence and Grand Bahama experienced declines in visitors of 5.9 percent and 14.7 percent, respectively, whereas arrivals to the Family Islands strengthened by 11.7 percent, the report said.

Last Friday, Bahamas Hotel Association President Russell Miller reported a bleak outlook for tourism.

By KEVA LIGHTBOURNE