Representatives of the Ministry of Tourism and its partners are in London, England this week to attend the World Travel Market event.

Director General of Tourism, Latia Duncombe spoke with ZNS News about the value of attending the trade show. She said, “tourism is what we’ve done successfully as a destination. It accounts for north of 60% of our GDP.”

Duncombe also spoke about the strength of the Bahamas brand and the country’s showing at this year’s event. “We have seven offices overseas. Five in the US, one here and other in Canada. So we have boots on the ground day in, day out. Some destinations come, visit, enjoy the show and they leave but we’re here tilling the soil, working the market all the time. And so many of the relationships that we’ve garnered over the years we’ve certainly yielded the benefits from it. So yes, no the biggest booth but I will tell you the most effective team. Team Bahamas along with our stakeholders, the promotion board, the hotels, our partners, we’re certainly representing brand Bahamas and delivering more business to the destination.”

There are approximately 51,000 people attending World Travel Market this year.