#UnitedStates, November 1, 2017 – Plantation, FL – The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation (MOTA) Plantation’s office recently hosted several travel agents from West Palm Beach, Broward and Miami Dade Counties, to Grand Bahama Island, October 27-28, 2017 via Balearia Caribbean. The visit, which was part of the MOTA ongoing campaign, “The Bahamas is Open For Business, Come See For Yourself,” gave the agents an opportunity to experience first hand, the island’s major hotels, marinas and tourist attractions.
“Feedback from the agents have been very positive and encouraging; the agents left the destination confident, knowledgeable and ready to sell our second city, Grand Bahama Island,” said Donna Mackey, Sr. Sales Manager, MOTA.
According to Jennifer Gardiner-Bannister, Area Manager at the MOTA, “we have worked assiduously with our travel agents and tour operators communities over the past few years. As we continue to strengthen our partnership alliance, we want to also build on our ‘on-line, off-line, on-island’ strategy with them. This three step strategy, ‘on-line’, which through our website and other social media marketing platforms, provides awareness to these agents of our destination programs, new development, etc.; ‘off-line’ gives us an opportunity to engage and connect with them one-on-one, during sales missions product launches, training seminars and; on-island, where we invite agents to The Bahamas to better understand, promote and personally experience our diverse and unique multiple destination chain. We want to ensure that we have and are providing them with the resources and all the information necessary, for them to do business with us and their clients to visit our shores, again and again,” she said.
“Many persons seem to think that The Bahamas was devastated by the recent hurricanes. While two of our Southern islands, in particular, Ragged Island and Acklins, did sustain some property and infrastructural damages from Hurricane Irma, the rest of The Bahamas did not, including the hotels and marinas in our major islands: Nassau, Paradise Island, Grand Bahama, Exuma, Abaco, Bimini, Andros and Eleuthera. Tourism is our number one industry and the economic engine for the country, so it is imperative that we let the world know, through these agents, that The Bahamas feared well and is “open for business, come see for yourself,” she said.
The trip is one of several on-going trips planned for the islands of Grand Bahama, Nassau and Bimini. In addition to the familiarization trips, the MOTA sales departments have since the summer season, conducted a series of lunch and learn seminars on land and at sea to top producing travel agents in Tampa, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
Press Release: Bahamas Ministry of Tourism
