By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Ministry of Tourism is pushing for 3-4 per cent growth in niche markets such as religious and sports tourism, a senior official said yesterday.
 Harrison Thompson, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, said: “We are hoping for at least a 3 to 4 per cent growth out of the niche markets. Sports tourism is very big now.

“There is also religious tourism. We just had a big liturgical dance group here over the weekend. They brought in a few hundred people. We are exploring all the avenues to ensure that we get the best results from our hard work. We have appointed directors in all these areas, and we are looking forward to the end result being beneficial for the Bahamas.”

Mr Thompson said the Ministry was involved in several initiatives with key stakeholders such as the Bahamas Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA) to improve this nation’s tourism product.

“We are involved in many partnership agreements with the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association. We are working to see how we can get this tourism product to be what it should be. There are many initiatives we are involved on with them,” he added.

Mr Thompson said airlift was a major issue the Ministry was addressing. “Airlift is very important. We are focusing on airlift in a serious manner,” he added.

“We have appointed a new director of airlift who really just came back from Europe, having been in meetings with airlines along with the director-general of tourism.

“We are exploring airlift from Asia, Europe, the UK, the United States and even in the Latin American market, because we believe airlift is the foundation to move from. We want to fill the hotel rooms. The cruise business is going well, but we need to boost airlift and we are working assiduously on that.”