For decades, The Bahamas has been the destination of choice for many tourists from markets around the world. Now, for the first time, the Bahamas officially makes it as one of the top 15 vacation destinations of U.S. adults, ranking number 15.
The Harris Poll surveyed 2,242 U.S. adults online between July 12 and 18, 2005 and surveyed 5,237 European adults (2,005 in Great Britain, 1,075 in Germany and 1,069 in Italy) between July 7 and 15, 2005.
Harris Interactive Inc. is said to be the 13th largest market research firm in the world and is a Rochester, NY-based company.
Compared to previous years, there are some interesting changes to the U.S. results, the company said. Maybe due to last year’s Olympic Games, Greece moves up from #14 to #8. Also, now that the furor of the Lord of the Rings movies has subsided, the rush to New Zealand may not be as great as that country drops from #8 to #11.
Australia was actually listed as the top vacation dream spot for adults in the United States and France and comes in second (behind the United States) for adults in Great Britain, Italy and Germany.
Rounding out the top five vacation destinations for Americans are Italy (#2), Great Britain (#3), Ireland (#4) and France (#5).
Bahamas Director General of Tourism Vernice Walkine noted on Wednesday that The Bahamas has always been a destination of choice for American adults.
“It’s always delightful to get the kind of acknowledgement that some of the things that we’ve been doing are bearing fruit because it really supports what we’re seeing which is that we are becoming more and more of a demand destination. People are coming to the islands of The Bahamas for a number of reasons,” she told The Bahama Journal.
“[There’s] the fact that we’re perceived to be a safe destination. We’re a fairly well known entity, particularly in the United States. I think there’s hardly an American who has not been to The Bahamas [or] heard about The Bahamas from a friend or relative who has been to The Bahamas and we’re easy to get to. We have increasing airlift all the time. Airlift rates are very competitive right now so it makes us a lot more affordable.”
Overall, the director general said that it is becoming much more attractive for the American public to visit The Bahamas.
“We have a range of hotel products,” she noted. “We have a range of destinations within the one country. We speak English. The U.S. currency is on par with Bahamian currency. So all of these things that have always been true are becoming much more relevant today. The fact that the U.S. economy continues to improve really supports our belief that the travel and tourism industry is going to be very, very strong for the next little while.”
Ms. Walkine said that The Bahamas among some Americans is in fact the top destination and tourism officials look forward to the day when more polls like Harris would reflect that.
“We keep driving [for the number one spot] and we believe that will come in the fullness of time,” she said. “I think what will be important is for us to continue to improve service levels so that the experience is so outstanding that we would in fact become number one and become the destination that everyone everywhere, not just in America but also in the United Kingdom, in Europe, Canada and other parts of the world, really will clamor to get to because we have the reputation for delivering a first class, quality experience.”
As it relates to Europe, Ms. Walkine said the Ministry of Tourism is doing more to try to attract more visitors from there.
“We’re still very popular in the United Kingdom and Europe and in fact our numbers out of all of those markets have been growing at a steady pace so we’re very, very gratified about the numbers,” she said.
“They’re not large numbers, but they continue to move in a positive direction which is always an indication of how well we’re doing.”
When looking at the European top-five vacation destination list, there are some interesting differences to note.
The United States followed by Australia are top spots for adults in Great Britain, Germany and Italy, but not France. The French put Australia (#1), Canada (#2), and Italy (#3) before the United States (#4). When it comes to vacationing in neighboring European countries, Spain is in the top five of destinations for the French (#5), Italians (#4) and Germans (#4) but is ninth with the British.
Europeans express diversity in their top travel destination choices when cost is not an option. For example, Egypt is in the top ten for the British (#6), French (#6) and Italians (#5) and comes in tied for twelfth for Germans. A country many Americans might have difficulty placing on a map, the Maldives, is #8 for the British, #13 for the Italians and #11 for the Germans. Each of the European countries surveyed also has at least one unique destination in the top 15- one that is not on any other country’s top-15 list.
For the British, South Africa comes in at #11 while the French have four unique travel destinations – Tahiti (#9), Morocco (#12), Vietnam (#14) and Croatia (#15). Italians are the only ones to place Brazil (#12) in their top 15 and Germans place Dubai as #10 in the top vacation destinations.
Overall, while half of Americans would go to a country in Europe, this preference varies for people in European countries.
Over one-third of British adults (35%) would travel to the Asian Pacific region followed by 34 percent who would travel to the Americas and Caribbean. Similar numbers in France would travel within Europe (28%) or to the Americas (28%) while the Italians would be most likely to travel to the Americas (34%) followed by the Asia Pacific region (32%).
For Germans, nearly one-third would stay within Europe (31%) followed by 29 percent who would want to visit the Asia Pacific region.
Source: The Bahama Journal
