Shanghai residents may need little coaxing, but the Bahamas wants more Chinese to visit its sun-drenched, beach-laced island idyll.

Tourism officials, in town to promote their Caribbean home, hope residents will take advantage of new visa regulations that came into force in February when China signed an approved destination agreement with the Bahamian government.

Ellison Thompson, deputy director general at Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, said air fair would be around 15,000 yuan (US$1,875) return from Shanghai. The average daily expenses in Nassau, capital city of the Bahamas, is US$250, said Thompson. It includes accommodation, meals and other expenses.

A visa to the Bahamas takes 14 days to come through for Chinese tourists. The delegation said it would try its best to shorten that period.

No direct flights exist yet between the Bahamas and China but tourists can transfer to the Bahamas in Toronto, London, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Around 1,000 Chinese visited the Bahamas each year since 2003.

"There's still a large market potential in China," said Thompson.

The next step was to set up direction signs in Chinese and to publish tourism Chinese guide books in the Bahamas, according to Geneva Cooper from the general direct office of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism.

Mandarin guide services will be provided to Chinese tourists in the future, according to the delegation.

"The whole market plan will stretch to three to four years," said Thompson. "But we are here for a long haul."

The Bahamas boasts more than 700 islands and 2,500 cays in the western Atlantic Ocean. Tourism generates 70 percent of its total gross domestic product and employs half of the total work force.

(Shanghai Daily July 28, 2006)