LONDON – One of the United Arab Emirates national flag carriers, Emirates Airlines has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Caribbean Archipelago, The Bahamas. The intent of the agreement is to help boost the nation’s tourism sector.
The agreement was signed at Emirates Group headquarters by Emirates Group Chairman, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum and the Ambassador of the Bahamas to the UAE and State of Qatar, Tony Joudi.
Also present at the signing were Adnan Kazim, Emirates Chief Commercial Officer and Salem Obaidalla, Emirates Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations for the Americas.
“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.2
“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,” said HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum.
The Bahamas is made up of hundreds of smaller uninhabited islands, but comprises 16 major islands located off the southeastern tip of Miami, Florida.
It boasts miles of coastline along the crystal clear Atlantic Ocean, and offers an eclectic mix of both leisure activities and cultural experiences.
All of this adds up to make an attractive getaway location and one of the most popular destinations in the Caribbean.
His Excellency Tony Joudi, Ambassador of The Bahamas to the UAE and the State of Qatar said: “I would like to thank Emirates for playing a role in strengthening the connection between the two countries.”
“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.”
Boosting tourism
The agreement outlines that both parties will begin a journey on joint promotional campaigns that will benefit the airline whilst also boosting tourism in the islands.
Marketing and trade familiarisation trips will be held during the first quarter in 2023 and tailor made tour packages collaborated on, that will be sold via Emirates Holidays.
Emirates flies to 12 destinations in the United States and to Toronto in Canada. As part of existing codeshare agreements, United airlines offers onward travel from locations such as Houston, Chicago and Newark into the Bahamian capital, Nassau.
As well as offering codeshare partnership with United Airlines, an agreement that began in November with Air Canada can provide a connection from the Emirates route into Toronto.
“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,” continued Ambassador Joudi.
“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.”
” On behalf of the Government of The Bahamas and the nation’s people, we look forward to organising a familiarisation trip early this year for influencers and media to experience first-hand the best of our nation’s offerings and highlight it as a top tourist destination to their audiences.”
Currently, the lion’s share of tourism traffic in The Bahamas is comprised of United States and Canadian citizens, but the signing of the agreement will hopefully see an increase in visitors from further afield from countries that are served by the Emirates network.
The airline will be hoping to entice tourists from the UAE, Greece, India, China amongst other Asian countries with its new tourism initiative.
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