Bahamas Holidays Given a Boost with Series of Innovative Promotions

The number of travellers enjoying Bahamas holidays has risen substantially during the first six months of this year thanks to a number of innovative marketing and promotion campaigns organised by the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation.

After the launch of a series of successful marketing and promotion strategies and campaigns launched by the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, the number of visitors taking Bahamas holidays during the first six months of 2010 has increased significantly.

Minister Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace highlighted the success of the strategies, which were put in place to encourage tourists to take holidays to Bahamas, to this year’s participants of the Tourism Apprentice program.

The tourism apprentices had recently taken part in trainee work placements which lasted six months and Minister Vanderpool-Wallace spoke of the benefits and effects the campaigns had made on the travel market and Bahamas holidays sector as the local residents of the island reached the end of their formal training.

Minister Vanderpool-Wallace explained: “The first quarter of this year is one of the best quarters we’ve ever had in the middle of a recession.

“For the first six months of this year, the numbers are obviously not in yet, but in terms of air arrivals, it is going to be one of the best six months we’ve ever had in terms of Nassau/Paradise Island in particular. In terms of cruise passengers, the numbers are off the charts because that volume of business continues to grow.”

Because of the recent increase in travellers taking flights to Bahamas and enjoying stays in Bahamas hotels, the future of the island’s tourism looks bright which could lead to a long-term rise in employment opportunities.

Minister Vanderpool-Wallace believes that within a few years the island will be in a strong position where Bahamians will be commuting to Nassau from surrounding family islands for work.

He continued: “That’s the way grown up countries that are archipelagos function. There’s not this business of somehow everybody is crowding in one place because we have opportunities to begin to expand and spread to a degree that is extraordinary.”

With over 600 applicants to the Tourism Apprentice program, only 100 were successfully accepted for the placements and many have since secured employment through their posts.

President of the Bahamas Hotel Association, Robert Sands, said: “We were thrilled to know that a number of you have already secured employment from this program or are in the process of being considered for employment.

“We congratulate you and urge you to turn to this life-changing opportunity. I do not expect that all of you would be employed as a result of this program but we knew that some of you would and that this program was in fact meaningful and beneficial.”

Minister Vanderpool-Wallace concluded: “Everybody in this room has proven themselves in some very special ways,” he said. “And you have a commitment from the hotel sector in particular and from the Ministry of Tourism that the first place we look for employing anybody for anything at anytime from this day forward is from you.”