Bahamian hoteliers may be forgiven for envying their counterparts in Cuba.

While a recent survey of local players suggests their occupancy rates were challenged in the first quarter, the Cuban tourism economy experienced a minor boom courtesy of a spike in visitor arrivals over the same three-month period.

On Wednesday, officials there announced that Cuba's increasingly important travel industry appears to have recovered from a two-year slump, with a 15 percent rise in tourists during Q1 2008.

The number of international visitors, in fact, topped the one-million mark just on Monday, 22 days sooner than last year.

Cuba credits well-attended conferences and trade fairs for the increase, a market The Bahamas has also sought to hunt down.

The improved position may be hard for this country to duplicate considering growing economic woes, no longer contained to the United States.

Our western neighbor offers a price point considerably lower than the higher-end Bahamas, increasingly focused on winning well-heeled tourists.

That may make it more difficult for our hoteliers to divert the flow of budget-conscious Canadian and European tourists looking to bed down in cheap and cheerful Cuba for a week or two.

Still, our own Ministry of Tourism data suggest the number of air arrivals to this country may ultimately better last year's disappointing performance. Well, that's only if January numbers are anything to go by. While cruise ship visitors declined in number from the same month a year earlier, the number of air arrivals grew by six percent.