Friday, July 23, 2010US to Compete With Bahamas

INDERIA SAUNDERSBarack Obama's New Act On Tourism

Watch out Bahamas tourism, the U.S. is on its way as President Barack Obama rolls out a new travel initiative that will see the country strengthen its tourism product - a plan not only centered on going after the same target market as The Bahamas, but maybe Bahamian travelers themselves.

It's a project that could put a dent in Ministry of Tourism's latest efforts to increase domestic tourism.

And it comes as the U.S. - particularly Florida - aims to offer many of the same sorts of attractions as The Bahamas, supplementing its beaches with a huge expansion in casinos and gambling and with Atlantis-style water parks in the works.

According to the Senior Advisor and deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Commerce, Rick Wade, the competition is definitely on the way.

"Our goal obviously is to bring more tourists into the United States and tourism is a major export and an important part of our sector," he told Guardian Business. "We want to expand that to the extent where we can bring more visitors in. We only create more jobs here and that's the ultimate goal of the President's initiative."

It's a Travel Promotion Act that requires U.S. officials to promote America as a tourism and travel destination all over the world, with a focus on the international strategy, said Wade. The program is a part of an Obama goal to double exports in the next five years, with that government waiving visa requirements from participating countries to encourage U.S. travel.

"We want more visitors from other countries to visit the United States," he added. "That impacts the hotel industry and every other industry in the tourism cycle and thats good for America."

But therein lies the issue: What's good for America - boosting its tourism dollars - is not good for The Bahamas. This country already relies heavily on tourism for revenue and increased competition from one the world's largest power houses may not bode well for an already-struggling tourism product.

At the moment, Tourism is aggressively going after those domestic travel dollars, with a companion fly-free program centered on showing locals the luxuries of vacationing at home.

However, the long-standing complaint of The Bahamas just being too expensive to stay at home still stands, with Guardian Business analysts asserting more needed to be done in the way of lowering costs.

Still, one saving grace for The Bahamas may be that as the U.S. lures international travelers to its destination, this country is still heavily focused on drawing more visitors from North America

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