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Alan Greenspan Spurs Concerns About Bahamas Tourism
Related to country: Bahamas

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Greenspan spurs concerns about Bahamian tourism:
By INDERIA SAUNDERS, Guardian Business Desk -
Nassau, Bahamas:



WASHINGTON, DC — The Bahamas may have missed out on the Caribbean's most bullish tourism market ever, with no one other than Alan Greenspan telling industry insiders a record numbers of Americans headed south in March — the same month Nassau saw a decrease in the number of visitors.

Still the most revered man to hold the U.S. Federal Reserve's top post, the economist told Caribbean leaders Monday that the latest American flight data shows the highest level of traffic to the Caribbean in history.

The news came as quite a surprise, he admitted, considering the decline in the U.S. economy and the tightening effect it's had on the purse strings of Americans.

"We don't publish the data within [specific destinations in] the Caribbean, but the suspicion is its dispersing over the wide Caribbean," Greenspan explained. "I was surprised to see latest data shows it's only marginally below one previous month in 2006 [and] I would have expected to find numbers down a bit."

Even a casual look at Bahamian reports for last March suggest the destination was not among those on the receiving end of that step-up in business.

While visitor arrivals were not down per say in The Bahamas, according to the Ministry of Tourism's latest data, in March The Bahamas saw a mere 0.1 percentage increase in air and sea arrivals, roughly 300 more tourists than those who touched down or sailed in during the same period a year earlier.

The hike from 500,086 visitors in March 2007 to 500,388 arrivals the same month this year considers visitors to all of the islands in the archipelago. It also illustrates the problems facing New Providence and Grand Bahama, which registered overall declines that month of 0.6 and 18 percent, respectively.

Greenspan, who served under the last four presidents and is increasing drawing blame for failing to prevent the subprime mortgage meltdown, argues March's increased traffic is an outlying blip. April actually marked a further deterioration of the U.S. economy, growth in job losses and a retreat from consumer spending.

American consumer confidence has also since fallen off. In fact, new Conference Board numbers suggest that key barometer of economic health fell in June to its lowest in 16 years as inflation rose. All and all, it suggests The Bahamas may ultimately face a summer season marked by further challenges to the country's bottom line. That's despite a whack of new money — the bulk of $4 million — thrown into marketing early this year. About $9 million more is on the way.

Greenspan's analysis may run counter to the opinions of many Bahamian hoteliers who, according to Frank Comito of the Bahamas Hotel Association, are looking forward to a strong summer. That season is traditionally the slowest for the destination.

Still, the possibility of arrival declines is a trend the famous American economist believes may extend beyond that narrow window.

"These are extraordinary times for most everybody, especially those involved in trying to attract tourism to the Caribbean," Greenspan said. "I think you're having troubles now and will continue to have them, but tourists will find a way to your area."

One of the things that the region would have to work on to achieve this, he said, is to improve the price of tickets to Caribbean destinations, which have recently undergone unprecedented hikes due to soaring oil prices.

"If you cannot get the cost per mile travel down, it will impact negatively on Caribbean tourism," Greenspan said. "[Getting that in order] may not happen as quickly as everyone would like."

June 25, 2008 | 4:04 AM Comments  0 comments

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