By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas should be able to double airlift from Latin America in two years, the Ministry of Tourism’s director general said yesterday, adding that visitors from the region should grow to nearly 6 per cent of total arrivals in three years.

Prior to the launch of Copa Airlines’ service into Nassau last June, visitors from Latin America represented less than 2 per cent of arrivals to the Bahamas, and were primarily driven by American Airlines’ service out of Florida.

Now, visitor arrivals from the Latin American market have grown by 30 per cent on the strength of the Copa Airlines’ Nassau-Panama route, David Johnson said.

He added that two additional carriers from Latin America had expressed interest in offering service to the Bahamas.

Mr Johnson said: “We have meetings in September with two additional Latin American carriers that have expressed interest.”

Not wanting to divulge to details, he added: “We are looking at direct service from Brazil in the not too distant future.”

Mr Johnson said there was great potential in the Latin American market.

“We are dealing with a market of over 500 million people and a vastly expanded middle class.  The Bahamas has the glitz, it is the upscale destination, it is the destination they talk about as having much brand value. However, we have to be able to communicate with them and extend that lifeline,” he added.

Mr Johnson said air arrivals similar to what the Bahamas achieves from Canada each year was possible out of Latin America.

He said: “There is no reason that Latin America could not, in three years, reach the level that Canada is today, which is 130,000 passengers, and begin to get it from  2 to near 6 per cent.  I believe that market has the potential to do that. It is closer, there are a lot more bodies and they have a lot more money.”

Speaking on Copa’s performance, Mr Johnson said: “Copa ended their first year with load factors averaging over 82-84 per cent. We are still convinced that we can see more service from Copa.

“There are still some challenges we have as it relates to making it easier for visitors to come. We have vaccination issues. We need to find ways to communicate and manage that process better.  We are in talks with seeing how we can do that. We are leaving some business on the table now with Copa.”