Stopover visitors to Long Island grew by only 250 people over a nine-year period, due in part to disjointed airlift between the island, New Providence and U.S. tourism markets, Director of Airlift at the Ministry of Tourism Tyrone Sawyer revealed at the Long Island Business Outlook.
Sawyer said these misaligned flight schedules affect many of the out islands, leading to scheduling problems for tourists who may not want to layover in New Providence before visiting their final island destination or returning home.
"What I want as a traveler is the ability to have each of those markets connect to me in both directions," he said. "In addition to that transportation, I need you to pursue a tourism mission."
That mission, he said, is for airlines such as The Bahamas' national flag carrier, Bahamasair, to consider the frequency of flight arrivals to New Providence when considering flight schedules to Family Islands.
He used Bahamasair's Long Island leg as an example of a flight that considers the first leg of a tourist's travel, but not the return flight. Sawyer contended that Bahamasair's return to New Providence, a 3 p.m. flight, leaves too late to consider the bulk of departures to key tourism-originating markets from Lynden Pindling International Airport.
"Airlift to Long island is not aligned," he said. "You have to be able to connect your passengers in both directions in order to stimulate tourism. There is a tourism mission that's not being met."
He also cited public/private partnerships like those between Sandals, the Ministry of Tourism and Air Canada as important and beneficial airlift strategies that more of the Family Islands could benefit from.
However, that segued into his second point, that outlined a correlation between the number of hotels and rooms on an island and the number of annual stopover visitors to that island.
"The growth in the number of hotel rooms has a direct effect on your ability to grow tourism," Sawyer said.
He revealed that Long Island reported 14 licensed hotels and 192 rooms in 2016, which grew by only 47 rooms over the past eight years. He said these numbers might not justify negotiating commercial flights to the island like has been accomplished in Exuma and Abaco.
"Twice a week you're connecting from Nassau to specific, non-stop flights from specific, key tourism-originating markets," said Sawyer.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian