NEW YORK -- Officials with Travel Leaders Group and the
Bahamas Ministry of Tourism offered updates on recovery efforts in the wake of
Hurricane Dorian during a session for travel advisors and media at Travel
Leaders Group headquarters here.
"One of the best ways we can help the Bahamas is to get
the facts out and encourage travel," said Travel Leaders Group CEO Ninan
Chacko.
To that end, Travel Leaders unveiled its Travel Helps the
Bahamas initiative to encourage travel to those parts of the country unaffected
by the hurricane. A press release from the ministry noted that while the
hurricane "walloped the Abacos and Grand Bahama Island ... there are also
14 other islands that are beautiful, palm-fringed and open for business."
During a Q&A session with Chacko, Ellison "Tommy"
Thompson, the ministry's deputy director general, decried reports that might
have led some to mistakenly conclude that the whole country was impacted by the
hurricane.
"So people coming on holiday to Nassau or Bimini,
Eleuthera or Exuma, they thought that the whole country was devastated, that we
were one land mass -- not the fact that we stretch 750 miles," Thompson
said. "If something is happening in Abaco or Freeport, it does not affect
Nassau, and Nassau was not hit."
He noted that tourism makes up half of the country's GDP,
with six out of 10 jobs related to tourism in some capacity, and that visitor
revenue will play a crucial role in recovery.
"So if you're coming, why don't you think about staying
an extra day or two?" Thompson said.
"Why not drop another $50 or $100 a day into the economy?"
Travel Leaders also discussed its partnership with Royal
Caribbean International that gives passengers up to $100 in onboard credit for
sailings that visit Nassau or CocoCay, the cruise line's private island.