The Bahamas is waiting for Canadian travellers
By: Ann Ruppenstein
When flights from Canada resume and travel restrictions ease up, The Bahamas will be ready to welcome back Canadians on multiple levels.
“There’s going to be even more of a pent up demand for travel once the restrictions are lifted so we’re working with travel professionals in the background, we’re educating them through virtual platforms and webinars, to keep us top of mind so that they are really prepared to sell and promote us when the restrictions are lifted,” Paul Strachan, Senior Director of The Bahamas Tourist Office in Canada, tells Travel Courier. “Key to that is promoting our protocols and the fact that we are a safe destination. We realized that notwithstanding the pent up demand, people will want to go somewhere that’s close and that’s safe, and we check both of those boxes.”
With Canada being the second largest source market for international visitors to the Caribbean destination, Strachan says they are also working with tour operators to make it very attractive for Canadians to visit The Bahamas when that time comes.
“We’re putting together specials so those that would have had credit for travel from last year, in the case of Air Canada Vacations in particular, coupled with the pent up demand, that The Bahamas would obviously be a natural choice for them,” he says. “We have programs ready — as soon as those restrictions are lifted, we’re ready to go. We are ready to light it up and welcome Canadians to The Bahamas.”
Clean & pristine
With The Bahamas receiving the World Travel and Tourism Council’s Safe Travels Stamp accreditation, Joy Jibrilu, Director General of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism says visitors can feel confident knowing that resorts, excursion operators, and local transportation companies are all adhering to global health and safety standards.
“Every single market intelligence is telling us that health and safety is utmost in people’s mind, they want to know there are policies in place for the hotels in the destination,” says Jibrilu. “The best way to get that message out is by ensuring that our partners are informed.”
The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, in partnership with over 150 private sector and public service stakeholders, also implemented its own Clean & Pristine Certification Program, and has trained over 18,000 industry partners to date.
As a tourism dependent destination, Jibrilu says it’s also essential to continue promoting The Bahamas in anticipation of the bounce back even while flights from Canada are suspended.
Joy Jibrilu
Director General of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism
One of the things we’ve worked really hard to do over this past year is preparing for the return of travel and tourism. We know everyone wants to travel somewhere. What we want to do is make sure that when people think about travelling, and are thinking about somewhere that’s safe and easy to get to, that The Bahamas will be front of mind,” Jibrilu tells Travel Courier. “By keeping our partners engaged and letting them know about the amazing new initiatives the Ministry has undertaken during this period, it’s a good way to keep the communication lines open and talk about The Bahamas and be in a state of readiness when the Canadian government says it’s okay for everyone to travel again.”
Vaccine rollout in The Bahamas
At press time, The Bahamas had just received its first 20,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as part of COVAX, a coalition led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi (Vaccine Alliance).
“We know that the more people are vaccinated in our source markets of Canada and the US, for our visitors to The Bahamas, and certainly in The Bahamas, that makes it even more of a safe destination,” says Jibrilu. “In fact, it’s the wish of the Prime Minister that every Bahamian should be vaccinated in the next two months, eight weeks, everyone who is eligible for the vaccination, so that we can promote ourselves as a destination where everyone has been vaccinated.”
With a small population, Jibrilu believes it will be possible to vaccinate all Bahamians in a “very quick period of time.”
“We have a population of roughly 400,000, so with the batches of vaccines coming in, in cases of 100,000, we can easily vaccinate our entire population within a very short time frame,” adds Strachan.
Lessons learned
Jibrilu acknowledged that after The Bahamas reopened its borders in July after months of lockdown, the destination immediately experienced a second wave and shut down again shortly thereafter.
“In trying to be all things to everyone, I think the government made some compromises that hindsight told us was the wrong thing,” she says. “When we saw numbers under control, our major resorts reopened in December and we’re so thankful that with adherence to the very strict protocols that are in place — mandatory mask wearing, social distancing, mandatory requirement of an RT-PCR test prior to travel, a rapid antigen test five days into your trip — we have seen no increase in cases, thankfully. We’ve really managed to keep good control over it. We feel confident we’ve learned from the mistakes that were made in July of 2020, put in place measures that needed to be put in place, and that we are able to resume tourism again, small numbers, but a lot more safety.”
What’s happening on Grand Bahama?
Despite these turbulent times, Jibrilu said there is still interest in seeing the development plans from Royal Caribbean Cruises and privately held ITM Group for a $300 million resort and port development in Freeport, Grand Bahama, come to life, as well as the port development from Carnival Cruise Lines.
“Obviously the cruise lines have been impacted the most by this pandemic, notwithstanding, both Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Lines, continue to express interest in their expansion and development plans for Grand Bahama, and seeing these projects come to fruition,” she says. “In terms of timelines, it’s so difficult to say because so much is dependent on them getting back into business…, recouping some of the losses that they’ve experienced over the past year.”
Love Is In The Air
In addition to tourism, romance is also an important segment for The Bahamas. On March 2,
The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation held a virtual romance and wedding expo which drew in over 1,300 attendees from Canada and the US.
Day one of the two day From The Bahamas With Love event was tailored specifically to trade professionals, including travel agents and event planners, showcasing the importance of the travel trade to the destination.
Filled with panel discussions on topics ranging from how hotels and resorts are adapting in response to the global pandemic to the changing landscape of romance travel and the unique options that await across The Bahamas, the informative event showcased how destination weddings and romance can mean big business opportunities for agents. Globally, the romance market brought in an estimated $415 million in revenue in 2019. In the three years preceding the pandemic, The Bahamas saw over 67,000 annual visitors travelling for weddings, honeymoons, engagements or a special getaway for two.
For agents with clients who are looking for memorable things to do, Carmel Churchill, a consultant with the Grand Bahama Island Tourism Board, pointed out that couples can have memorable experiences like the change to snorkel with stingrays through West End Ecology Tours or to enjoy delicious meals ranging from a five-star dining experience in Freeport to crab conch at the local fish fry.
Any advisors who would like to revisit the sessions or agents who missed From The Bahamas With Love, are able to view the recorded discussions and presentations at https://trade.bahamasromanceexpo.com/ for 30 days following the event.
Natural advantages
Made up of over 700 islands and cays, and 16 key island destinations for travellers to visit, Jibrilu says The Bahamas is also naturally suited for the type of vacations people are looking to take after the pandemic.
“Every single survey, every market intelligence says people, what they miss, what they want is to get on the beach,” she says. “They want to do activities to do with the water, where they are diving, boating, fishing, we know that’s going to be key for us. We know too that people are going to want to travel as families, with friends, whichever format, they don’t necessarily want to go to crowded spaces.”
Whether it’s Exuma, Andros, Bimini, Eleuthera or beyond, Jibrilu says “there are some natural advantages that we’re just thankful that we have.”
For Jibrilu, tourism is beneficial not only to The Bahamas, but also the industry in Canada.
“The Bahamas is obviously so tourism dependent, but I’m thinking of the airlines and the travel industry in Canada, all the businesses impacted because we know the impact that it had and continues to have on The Bahamas, so obviously stabilization in this sector once again only benefits everybody.”
Best of all, with the destination being so close, Strachan says it’s very convenient for Canadians to get to Nassau, which is a three hour flight from Toronto.
“Once Air Canada reinstates its flight, leaving at 8 a.m., you can literally be on the beach by noon,” he says.
