The Baha Mar resort is open for business following Hurricane Dorian (photo: courtesy Baha Mar)
Cover The Baha Mar resort is open for business following Hurricane Dorian (photo: courtesy Baha Mar)

How going on vacation can help with hurricane relief

The Grand Bahama and Abaco Island were hit hard by Hurricane Dorian before the tropical storm made its way up the East Coast of the U.S. At least 50 people are dead, 2,500 are listed missing, and property losses are estimated to reach $7 billion USD.

With that being said, the majority of the Bahamas seems to have remained untouched by the category 5 storm. The best thing you can do to help the affected areas with hurricane relief? Take a vacation.

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation is urging people to help the group of islands recover as a whole by continuing to visit the areas of the islands that haven’t been impacted—and more than a dozen remain open to receive visitors.

Tatler Asia
The Grand Hyatt Baha Mar (photo: courtesy Baha Mar)
Above The Grand Hyatt Baha Mar (photo: courtesy Baha Mar)

“The Bahamas is a country of 700 islands and cays beginning 50 miles off the Florida coast and stretching for 750 miles from Bimini in the north to Inagua in the south,” Ellison Thompson, deputy director general of the tourism ministry, told USA Today in a statement. “The distance between these areas are similar to the distance between Philadelphia and New York... If NYC has an issue, it doesn't affect Philadelphia.”

According to Thompson, the country has been seeing trip cancellations to areas that were not hurt by Hurricane Dorian, but he urges travellers to reconsider, as the unaffected areas (which are mainly the tourist hot spots) act as the main tourism revenue and will help the island recover as a collective.

Cruise ports, airports, hotels, beaches, and other tropical attractions in the central, northern and southern Bahamas are remaining open and ready for tourism. “Maintaining a robust tourism industry will be vital in helping the country to recover and rebuild,” said Dionisio D’Aguilar, Bahamas Minister of Tourism & Aviation, in the statement.