Preliminary visitor numbers for the Bahamas for 2011 reveal an increase of 6.3%, to 5.6 million visitors, according to Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, minister of tourism.
"Most of these are cruise arrivals. That market segment has exploded in the past two years," Vanderpool-Wallace said. "Our air arrivals were down 1.2% over 2010, due to bad weather last January in the U.S., a hurricane that impacted the Bahamas in August and the slow recovery from the recession."
However, a "big uptick" in air arrivals in November and December helped boost the year-end totals, with Nassau arrivals up 7.1% and Grand Bahama Island numbers up 15.9%.
Group business strengthened in 2011, a trend that has continued into 2012, he said.
Vanderpool-Wallace credited the destination's Companion Flies Free offer, launched two years ago and still in effect, as adding half a million room nights to overall hotel numbers.
"The promotion has created access and made it easier and cheaper to travel to the Bahamas," he said. "Travelers want low-cost, high-quality, high-frequency air. It is the best stimulus for travel."
New lift includes service on Vision Air from five U.S. gateways and JetBlue's additional capacity from White Plains (a suburb of New York City). Delta will launch nonstop flights from New York LaGuardia to Nassau in March.
Addressing media at the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association's Caribbean Travel Marketplace event taking place at Atlantis, Paradise Island, Vanderpool-Wallace added that a new Bahamas website will debut in March, the new arrivals terminal at Lynden Pindling Airport in Nassau will be completed next year and a marketing campaign focusing on the 16 island groups that make up the Bahamas will roll out later this year.
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