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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Bahamas Information Services Updates
Grand Bahama’s tourism sector got a needed shot in the arm Monday when WestJet Airlines announced direct service there from Toronto, Canada beginning November.
At a press conference at the
Isle of Capri Casino, Minister of Tourism and Aviation, Senator, the
Hon Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace affirmed his confidence in what Grand
Bahama has to offer.
“I continue to believe that
of all the destinations in this part of the world, the one with the
greatest potential by far is Grand Bahama Island," he said. "And
I believe that we are on the way to begin to prove that."
Among those present for the
announcement were representatives from the Taxi Union, the Grand Bahama
Port Authority, the Airport Company, and Customs and Immigration Departments.
Gregg Saretsky, Vice President
of WestJet Vacations, signaled "exciting times for us."
WestJet's 737-700 will make
two weekly flights from Toronto to Freeport, offering the market 14,000
seats this season.
By his company's forecast,
WestJet expects to bring 12,000 visitors to Grand Bahama this winter,
Mr. Saretsky said.
“I am confident that with
the product (Grand Bahama offers) and our new direct air service, our
twice weekly should be four times weekly by this time next year, and
that is the goal,” he stated.
He also had high praise for
the Club Grand Bahama concept calling it a “world class promotion.”
Senator Wallace recalled that
some 36 years ago, Grand Bahama was the number one destination in this
part of the world for Canadian visitors. A large percentage of them
went to West End.
The primary reason for that,
he said, was because Grand Bahama was the closest destination to the
eastern seaboard of Canada "and at the time we were very much alone
in the tourism business."
Since then many Caribbean countries
got into tourism. The rate of growth for people who were competing was
such that "we found ourselves receding into the background,"
said Mr Vanderpool-Wallace.
Grand Bahama's proximity to
the biggest market in the world "has to be reflected in the price
to get to this destination," he said.
“We cannot sit here and find
every single day as we used to find for a long period of time, that
it is more expensive to come to Grand Bahama than any places of our
competing destinations.
"We have to begin to end
that and today is the beginning of making that over because we cannot
continue in that vein,” he said.
The Ministry of Tourism has
been "diligently" working with their partners in Grand Bahama
to restore "the proximity advantage, and it is already beginning
to prove effective, said the Minister.
"We have begun to discover why we haven’t been doing better and we are beginning to put that together.
“That is the potent combination
that makes a significant difference in terms of our capacity to be able
to promote Grand Bahama.
“For us to go out there and
continue to promote something that is not competitive is a considerable
waste of money.
"We are now beginning to get products together that are extraordinarily competitive and I think this is the opportunity we have been looking for Grand Bahama for a very long time,” said Minister Vanderpool-Wallace.
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