Good Morning,
I want to start with a picture you will recognise.
A couple lands in Nassau on a Friday.
Before they arrive, they have already walked through The Bahamas on Google Street View.
They have built an itinerary on our website, checked in with a digital immigration card, and shared with their friends that they are finally coming to see us.
They step into a taxi, reach their hotel, and are greeted by a front desk agent who grew up in Kemp Road, trained through BahamaHost, and now mentors younger staff.
On Saturday, that couple flies to Exuma through a newly upgraded airport, meets a guide whose boat is financed through the Tourism Development Corporation, eats food from local farmers, plants a mangrove as part of a restoration project, and finishes the day posting videos on free downtown Wi Fi as the cruise port glows behind them.
On Sunday, they leave.
A three day stay.
But the question is this:
Did those three days change anything for that couple, for that guide, for that hotel worker, for that community.
Or was it just another long weekend.
That is the story I want us to write together.
Because if we get that story right, everything else follows.
From January to October this year, 9.9 million visitors chose The Bahamas.
That is an extraordinary achievement.
Yet the world is full of destinations chasing numbers.
The ones that will thrive are the ones that ask harder questions.
What do our guests understand about us when they leave.
How much of their spending reaches Bahamian families.
How much pride do our workers feel when they put on their uniforms.
I want this industry to be known as the place where those questions are asked honestly, answered clearly, and acted on bravely.
This year we marked fifty years of the People to People programme.
Half a century of Bahamian families opening their homes to strangers and ending as lifelong friends.
That programme taught us a simple truth: the strongest asset in our tourism model is the character of our people.
Now we must build a modern industry around that truth.
We see a wave of investment at the high end.
Montage Cay in Abaco, taking shape for 2026, will welcome guests into overwater bungalows and villas set in one of the most beautiful stretches of sea on earth.
Grand Bahama is on the cusp of an eight hundred million dollar reset of the Grand Lucayan, three hotels, a marina, golf, entertainment, a real anchor for that island’s rebirth.
Cave Cay will host Bvlgari, bringing one of the world’s most recognisable luxury brands into our Family Islands, with private mansions and villas that will draw a global clientele.
This is good news.
But here is the challenge.
Every time a new resort breaks ground, I want the first conversation to be about Bahamian ownership, Bahamian talent, Bahamian suppliers and the health of the surrounding environment.
If a project cannot answer those questions, it does not belong in the future we are building.
To support this new chapter, we have to fix the backbone of the industry, aviation.
We now have a National Aviation Strategic Plan that guides how we build airports, train people, grow airlift and keep our skies safe.
Across more than fourteen airports, terminals are rising and runways are being renewed.
New Bight and Arthur’s Town in Cat Island, Exuma International, Grand Bahama International, Bimini, North Eleuthera, Ragged Island, Great Harbour Cay, Governor’s Harbour, Rum Cay, Mayaguana, Crooked Island, Acklins, Andros, Long Island, and more.
This is the largest wave of airport work in our history.
Seat capacity has grown by more than twenty percent compared to 2022, and now stands above pre pandemic levels.
Over forty five new routes connect us to more than thirty five international cities.
From Canada, Porter Airlines and Air Canada are expanding.
From the United States, our long standing partners, along with carriers like Makers Air, are linking visitors straight to the islands where many of you are investing.
The interline agreement between Bahamasair and Emirates now gives us reach into Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Here is my challenge to you.
Do not wait for government alone to decide how these routes grow.
Bring us your data, your ideas, your risk sharing proposals.
If you see a new city, a new schedule, a new type of aircraft that can open up an island, come to the table.
We are ready to listen.
A modern industry also needs modern tools.
The Smart City pilot in downtown Nassau, through our partnership with Aliv and Cable Bahamas, is turning the cruise port area into a connected zone.
Free, strong Wi Fi from Prince George Wharf toward Arawak Cay and the Sir Sidney Poitier Bridge will allow small businesses to talk directly to guests in real time.
The Google Street View project is capturing more than two million images across our islands.
That helps a family in Manchester, Toronto or São Paulo to walk through our streets online and imagine themselves here.
It also helps us plan roads, manage emergencies and protect the environment.
Our official website now has an itinerary builder that makes multi island travel easier.
Digital immigration cards, the Sand Dollar and the national app are making the trip smoother.
My challenge to you.
Use these tools.
Do not treat them as nice extras.
Integrate them into your marketing plans, your guest communication, your staff training.
If we want to be seen as a leader in tourism, we have to behave like one every day.
Let me speak about the part that keeps me up at night.
Our entire model depends on clear water, healthy reefs, resilient mangroves, liveable islands.
We have campaigns like For The Love of Mangroves, partnerships with groups like Coral Vita and the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, and major conservation financing on the way.
We are preparing the Bahamas Sustainable Island Challenge so that Bahamian entrepreneurs can design solutions in ocean health, digital tools and renewable energy.
Here is the challenge for this room.
I want every hotel and attraction in The Bahamas to be able to point to one concrete, measurable way in which it is helping to repair what climate change and bad habits have damaged.
Not a brochure.
A real action.
Solar on the roof.
Local sourcing that cuts freight and supports farmers.
Mangrove planting linked to excursions.
Programmes that teach guests what is at stake and give them something useful to do.
When tour operators help guests plant a mangrove, or hotels power their laundry with solar, or marinas protect seagrass, that is not charity.
That is defence of your own business model.
All of this comes back to people.
BahamaHost, targeted training for hundreds of workers, the Tourism Development Corporation, the Aviation Cadets programme and the first Women in Aviation chapter in the Caribbean are steps toward a clear goal:
Any young Bahamian with talent and drive should be able to see a pathway from an entry level job in this industry to a leadership role.
I have met too many housekeepers who have been stuck on the same wage for decades, too many cooks who never had a chance to advance, too many brilliant students from our islands who were told that management was for someone else.
So here is my final challenge this afternoon.
Before the next BHTA AGM, I want every major property, every major tour operator, to be able to show one new ladder for advancement that did not exist a year ago.
A mentoring scheme.
A scholarship.
A fast track programme for outstanding line staff.
A plan to move more Bahamians into general manager, financial controller, executive chef and director roles.
Government will play its part in training and policy.
But culture on the ground is set by you.
Tourism used to be about showing visitors the best side of our islands.
The task now is bigger.
We are asking this industry to help rebuild Grand Bahama’s confidence, to keep young men in Exuma out of gangs, to give Cat Island children a reason to stay home and build careers, to turn mangrove seedlings into coastal defence, to prove that small island states can lead in aviation, digital tools and climate action.
That is a heavy assignment.
I believe you are equal to it.
So as you meet today, do not settle for comfort.
Push your own thinking.
Question old habits.
Ask yourselves where you can go further, where you can be braver, where you can put Bahamians at the centre in new ways.
If you do that, my government will stand with you, invest with you, and fight with you on the regional and global stage.
Let us write a new chapter in the story of Bahamian tourism, one in which record arrivals go hand in hand with record progress for our people.
Thank you, and may God bless you and bless the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.