Central Bank: 34,046 tourists during third quarter

A mere 34,046 visitors came to The Bahamas during the third quarter, July to September, according to data revealed in The Central Bank of The Bahamas’ Quarterly Economic Report for September, which reflected the continued negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown measures on the country.

In comparison, there were 1.6 million visitors during the same period last year.

The majority of visitors arrived by air (21,790), while sea arrivals totaled 12,278.

The tourism sector was effectively on pause during this period, as the government implemented strict lockdown measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and only just restarted it officially on November 15.

While visitor numbers remained subdued at the start of the fourth quarter, Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) Vice President of Marketing and Communications Jan Knowles said numbers continued a steady increase month over month.

“We can confirm that passenger numbers for November exceeded the numbers experienced this past September and October and we anticipate December will surpass numbers achieved in November,” she said in response to Guardian Business inquiries.

“With this week’s opening of Baha Mar and the opening of Atlantis last week, we are hopeful that the slight recovery in passenger numbers and flights we are seeing from month to month will steadily continue. Overall, the year 2020 has presented unprecedented challenges for airlines, airports and destinations and we are cautiously optimistic that 2021 will be a better year.”

The Bahamas welcomed more than seven million visitors in 2019 and Ministry of Tourism officials have projected that the country won’t return to 80 percent of pre-pandemic arrival levels until 2022. 

The CBOB said tourist arrivals to New Providence during the third quarter amounted to only 10,385, with just 9,238 arriving by air and 1,147 by sea.

Meantime, visitors to the Family Islands were a mere 21,545, with the numbers for air and sea traffic amounting to 11,848 and 9,697, respectively; and on Grand Bahama, there were 2,138 foreign arrivals, 704 by air and 1,434 by sea.

“Similar trends were observed in the private vacation rentals market, as most recent statistics provided by AirDNA revealed reductions in off-resort business during the review quarter. Nevertheless, domestic demand provided stronger residual activity than the onshore hotel segment of tourism. Vacation rental room nights booked fell by 62.2 percent, relative to the same period in 2019, amid contractions of 62.8 percent and 62 percent in bookings for both entire place and hotel comparable listings, respectively,” the CBOB stated.

“In terms of the components, occupancy levels for entire place listings rose by 13.1 percentage points to 34.4 percent, while the average daily rate (ADR) grew by 6.6 percent to $407. However, indicators varied for hotel comparable listings, as the occupancy rate moved higher by 13.5 percentage points to 34.7 percent, but the average daily rate declined by 1.1 percent to $144.14.”

Regarding domestic passenger departures, the Nassau Airport Development Company Limited (NAD) indicated that total departures amounted to 13,598 in the third quarter.

The majority of domestic departures (11,003) traveled to the United States, with the remaining 2,595 traveling to other jurisdictions.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/central-bank-34046-tourists-during-third-quarter/