By FARRAH JOHNSON

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

LAST year was a “record breaking" one for tourism, with the country hitting the highest recorded number of stopover visitors in its history, according to the Ministry of Tourism’s Director General Joy Jibrilu.

Speaking at a press conference at the Baha Mar resort yesterday, Mrs Jibrilu revealed the country welcomed 1.78 million airline visitors in 2019, with 1.45 million visitors hailing from the United States.

“After Hurricane Dorian, it was not business as usual,” she said. “We had to go back and regroup... and so our new campaign for the next few months will be ‘Still Rockin'.

“Everyone knows Hurricane Dorian came through The Bahamas the 2nd of September. Prior to that, you will see that we were on course 2019 through just an absolutely record breaking year considering that we had double digit growth in 2018.”

Mrs Jibrilu reported the top three origin cities for travel to The Bahamas— New York, Boston and Miami —all showed “positive trends".

She also revealed that international airlines will increase their services to the country this year.

“JetBlue is now offering a second daily flight from Boston to Nassau,” she said. “This is an important market for us. United Airlines, beginning the first week of March, will (also) offer a non-stop Saturday flight from Denver to Nassau… and Southwest Airlines has new seasonal Saturday flights from Houston to Nassau.”

According to Mrs Jibrilu, Air Canada has also increased its service to four flights per week and starting at the end of March, five direct flights from London to Nassau will be offered due to demand.

In terms of development projects, Mrs Jibrilu noted that Prince George Wharf cruise port is set to undergo a “massive transformation” which will be completed in 2022.

“The government recently entered into a negotiation with Global Port Holdings. (The project) will be $250m and... will begin the renaissance of the downtown Nassau area,” she explained.

Mrs Jibrilu also said Margaritaville is set to open in June and will feature 150 hotel rooms and 150 luxury ocean front condominiums, along with a pool, waterpark and marina.

Noting the impact Hurricane Dorian had on their report, Mrs Jibrilu also mentioned the significant strides Freeport has made since the storm.

“When we got into the campaign immediately following Hurricane Dorian letting the world know that 14 islands welcomed (them) with open arms, Freeport was not included.

“And we had to change that to 15 islands because Freeport has rebounded so quickly. 100 percent of their cruise lines are operating, 84 percent of the hotels are open, 84 percent of restaurants, 75 percent of tours and 55 percent of attractions are open.”

Still, Mrs Jibruli admitted that Abaco requires a significant amount of work before it can fully recover.

“The media needs to let the world know the best way they can help is to visit because it’s a long road ahead for Abaco.”

Speaking to reporters at the event, Tourism Minister Dionisio D'Aguilar said he believed 2019 was an “exceptional year” for the country.

“Were it not for Hurricane Dorian it would have been an off the chart year,” he added.

“So... September, October, and November were months that saw substantial decreases in stopover visitor arrivals... but (in) Christmas there was certainly a bouncing back.”

Mr D’Aguilar said he believed a lot of people who made reservations to visit Abaco and Grand Bahama ended up visiting other islands after the storm.

“The reports from those islands were that they never seen numbers like they saw in Christmas of 2019. So I'm very excited, I’m very proud (and) I think the country did extremely well," he said.