“We’re coming back, very, very strong; we’re leading the region and letting the world know we are open for business.”

The Honorable I. Chester Cooper, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation for the Bahamas told TravelPulse Canada at their kickoff event in Toronto Tuesday night, the first since the pandemic.

The Bahamas is set to meet its 2019 visitation levels, with a very strong rebound out of Canada; which lagged a bit due to our late lifting of restrictions. That rebound has been helped by ease of access with the return of daily flights from Toronto, Montreal and Calgary and an overall general love for the country – 60% of Canadian visitors are repeat.

“I think the COVID pandemic leveled the playing field against the competitive landscape, and we are aggressively pursuing this need to become the leader again in regional travel,” said Dr. Kenneth Romer, Deputy Director-General and Acting Director of Aviation. “The Bahamas a traveller saw prior to 2019 is not the Bahamas they will see post pandemic.”

“We've been innovating our product, there's been a lot of movement in terms of infrastructure, the resort properties, we've spent a lot of time during the pandemic, enhancing our service elements. So overall, the message is that you might have visited the Bahamas prior to the pandemic, if you were to visit now, you'll be pleasantly surprised by what we have been bringing to the table post pandemic.”

The Bahamas government has approved $5 billion in new investments, most of them happening in the tourist areas, with $300M in Nassau and in airports. Big hotel brands are also expanding such as Atlantis’ lifestyle project, “Somewhere Else”, a new resort that will be part of Atlantis Paradise Island.

Interconnectivity will also continue and be a focus for 2023, as the islands maintain their “gateway to the Caribbean” status.

“There is a big move now for multi destination travel,” says Cooper. “And really when we look at faraway markets, like the Middle East, it just makes sense. But we are a gateway to the Caribbean because of our proximity and we hope that visitors will build that multi destination travel experience throughout the Bahamas.

It's convenient to experience more than one destination. And really, that's not something that any of our Caribbean counterparts could rave about.”

Getting Canadians to explore the lesser-known areas of the Bahamas will require engaging travel agents, something both Cooper and Romer say is an important component of their strategy and is the reason for their visits to Toronto and Montreal this week.

“Our industry built on the back of persons who understand the value of relationships, and I'll be maintaining and strengthening those relationships. By connecting with our industry partners, and TravelPulse Canada readers, we adopt as a part of the tourism family to strengthen and grow our market share from Canada,” says Romer.

Cooper adds, “This is a people business. It's about people. And therefore, we work very closely with our stakeholders, all of them. Hotels, airlines, travel advisors, and travel partners. This mission really is to reach out and to show appreciation for them."