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Mixing work and pleasure
WHAT-TO-DO - NASSAU, CABLE BEACH & PARADISE ISLAND - JULY 2007
Mixing work and pleasure
Conventions in the sun
Wondering where your company should hold its next convention? Check out paradise; AKA The Bahamas.
Convention and incentive travel business is on the increase here for two reasons: one, the climate, courtesy of Mother Nature; the other, a tax break, thanks to a bilateral agreement between The Bahamas and the United States.
The Bahamas? subtropical climate, pristine beaches and clear ocean are obvious draws, as officials at the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (MOT) are quick to point out.
At the same time, they say, a recent Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA), is also encouraging US businesses to hold their conferences and trade shows here. The TIEA allows US corporations to claim a cost-of-doing business tax deduction when they hold conventions and meetings here. This means Bahamian resorts are competing on an equal footing with those in the US.
TIEA tickler
?We want to grow with the TIEA convention tax law. We want to use that as the tickler, so to speak, to get people to come down to The Bahamas,? says James Malcolm, MOT?s executive director of group travel.
Malcolm says group tourism is ?definitely growing? in The Bahamas and that resorts are expanding their conference space to meet the demand.
As part of its ongoing $600-million Phase III expansion, for example, Atlantis has opened a new convention centre that doubles the resort?s conference space on Paradise Island to about 200,000 square feet, including a 50,000-square-foot ballroom, the largest in the entire Caribbean area. As well, the huge planned Baha Mar development on Cable Beach is building meeting space.
Incentive travel?in which high-performance employees are rewarded with trips to holiday locations?is also growing. This business has increased by 10 to 15 per cent since 2005, says Malcolm.
Malcolm adds that the MOT is now targeting group travel management companies, corporate meeting planners and vacation site selection firms to expand this market in The Bahamas.
Because more and more American companies are using the Internet to find places to stage conventions and events, Bahamian resorts are also sharpening their Internet presence.
Using www.bahamasnet.com?foremost provider of information about The Bahamas on the Internet?local resorts are telling convention organizers what they have to offer: world-class facilities and a great place to enjoy sun, sea and sand when winter winds begin howling up north.
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