Tourism Suffering Despite Promos and Incentives
Earnest efforts and promotions to attract visitors to countries in the Caribbean region, including the Bahamas, have so far failed in bringing the number of tourists to our shores to match last year’s numbers, Prime Minister Ingraham revealed.
Speaking at the Regional Forum on the Occasion of the Inter-American Development Bank’s 50th Anniversary in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Friday, Mr Ingraham said that despite serious discounting and other incentives offered in the travel and hotel deals, occupancy levels remain well below those achieved last year by all of the Caribbean tourism economies.
And on the employment front, he said, to date the economic downturn has resulted in 2,200 lay-offs in the Bahamas’ hotel sector, which amounts to one per cent of the country’s entire work force.
Mr Ingraham said that the Bahamas was one of the first countries in the region to feel the effects of the slowing global economy.
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