The Bahamas is set to exceed both 2018 and 2019’s visitor numbers this year following a “strong rebound” from Covid-19.
Acting director general for the ministry of tourism, investments and aviation, Latia Duncombe, labelled 2019 a “banner year” for the Caribbean destination after it welcomed seven million visitors.
But she said the Bahamas was on track to beat those figures by the end of the year thanks to consistent airlift and the return of cruise ships to the destination.
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“Over time, restrictions have fallen away and what we’ve seen year-to-date for September is an 88% rebound of the 2019 numbers,” she said.
“Fast forward to where we are today and when we look at the numbers for the last quarter [of 2022], bookings through [international booking agency] ForwardKeys are exceeding both 2019 and 2018 numbers, so in terms of what’s actually been booked, we’re trending to exceed both 2019 and 2018 numbers this year. We’ve seen a strong rebound. Demand for the Bahamas is definitely there.”
Duncombe said the UK continued to represent the destination’s third-largest source market and said “pent-up demand” would continue into 2023 and 2024.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic currently operate nine direct flights a week between London and Nassau. That is set to increase next March with additional airlift from British Airways, whose service between London and Nassau will become daily.
“A lot of the market intelligence is showing that capacity for airlines has decreased [compared to] pre-pandemic – most of it is because of the pilot shortages and the changes to fleets – so capacity globally is down 20 to 25%.
“From the Bahamas’ perspective, we’re seeing year-to-date for the end of December we’ll only be down 17%. And when we look at it month-over-month, we’re seeing November and December exceeding 2019 numbers.”
Duncombe said the destination was also seeing a “robust return” of cruising and said the Bahamas had invested $300 million to develop its cruise port to handle demand. The destination also recently broke ground on a new cruise port in partnership with Carnival Cruise Line on Grand Bahama Island, which is expected to open in late 2024.
“It took a while for cruising to get back on stream, mainly because of the concentration of persons in such a confined space, but we’re seeing the robust return of that as well,” she said.
Duncombe added that capacity across its hotels was currently similar to that of 2019 and said though daily rates had increased, affluent holidaymakers were willing to pay so long as the “value proposition” was clear.
The country is gearing up to celebrate its 50th year of independence next July and has a full calendar of events planned, which Duncombe said would be shared in due course.
“Everything will be bigger and better in 2023,” she added.