UAE’s Emirates Airline, Bahamas partner to promote tourism

Emirates Airline has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Bahamas to encourage tourism to the Caribbean archipelago.

The airline and the Bahamian Ministry of Tourism will participate in joint initiatives to boost visitor traffic into the islands from key markets across the airline’s network.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates group chairman and chief executive said: “We are pleased to collaborate with The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Bahamas in supporting its goals to boost the nation’s tourism economy. Through our partnerships with United and Air Canada, we look forward to playing a key role in promoting The Bahamas as a key leisure destination. Our global customers from across our network can enjoy Emirates’ services to our points in North America and benefit from enhanced connectivity and access to the islands.”

Tony Joudi, Ambassador of The Bahamas to the UAE and the State of Qatar said: “Tourism is the lifeblood of our nation’s economy and, by growing visitor arrivals to our tropical island paradise, we hope to achieve our goals of stimulating the tourism economy and providing impetus to the business climate.

“Emirates is a facilitator of global connectivity and links the East with the West and we look forward to working closely with the airline to help us achieve our tourism targets. The economy at large will benefit from a further boost to tourism and our country has made significant investments in infrastructure to accommodate the anticipated boom in tourism.”

The agreement covers marketing activities including media and trade familiarisation trips, in Q1 2023, and the development of tailor-made tour packages, through its tour operating arm, Emirates Holidays.

Both parties will explore opportunities to partner on joint advertising campaigns to promote the West Indies destination.

The airline currently flies to 12 points in the US in addition to Toronto. Emirates’ customers from across its global network can utilise its services to fly to US destinations such as Houston, Chicago, or Newark before connecting to Nassau on United, owing to the partnership between both airlines. Travellers can also fly to The Bahamas via Toronto, with Canada’s national carrier Air Canada, which activated its codeshare partnership in November.

While the majority of visitor traffic to The Bahamas comprises travellers from the US and Canada, The Bahamas also attracts tourists from other international points in the airline’s network including the UAE, Greece, India, China, the Philippines and Singapore.