Cooper: Tourism ticket sales up more than 100% in October

Ticket sales to The Bahamas were up more than 100 percent last month according to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Aviation and Investments Chester Cooper, who also revealed yesterday that more than 158,000 visitors visited the country in September.

Cooper said overall, the Caribbean has continuously ranked as the top performing region for international arrivals in the COVID-19 era and in October was only 15 percent down in arrival numbers compared to 2019.

“In The Bahamas specifically there is tremendous pent-up demand for travel. Our visitor arrival statistics data bears this out. In September 2021, a total of 158,600 travelers visited The Bahamas, up from only 5,016 in September 2020. This is a year-over-year increase of more than 1,000 percent. The Bahamas saw October ticket sales up more than 100 percent from the same period in 2019. The outlook for December is 15 percent ahead of the same period in 2020 and we are optimistic for a robust holiday season,” he said while addressing the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants Annual Accountants’ Week seminar yesterday.

“Here’s why, there has been a significant increase in airlift, signaling confidence from our airline partners. Currently, there are direct or one-stop flights to The Bahamas from every major region of the United States. Just last week we celebrated the inaugural flights of Frontier Airlines from not one but two markets – Miami and Philadelphia. In addition, there is an historic number of flights out of the UK to Nassau with British Airways and Virgin.”

The visitor arrival numbers for September, though lower than August – which recorded 189,823 visitor arrivals – shows continued improvement in the sector and remains higher than July, which saw 183,270 total visitors through the country’s first port of entry; and June which saw 135,000 and the almost 94,000 recorded in May.

Cooper said he anticipates continued strength even in the cruise sector, despite the ending of home porting this month. He said in total, close to 300,000 cruise visitors came to The Bahamas since cruising resumed this summer.

“Cruising has returned in full force and after more than a year of the cruise industry shutdown, we welcomed more than 290,000 cruise passengers between the months of June and September,” he said.

“Ships from Carnival, Celebrity, Disney, MSC, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and Virgin have all returned to The Bahamas and we are once again seeing multiple vessels in Nassau’s cruise port.”

Cooper said heading into December, the Ministry of Tourism expects, on average, four ships per day into Nassau Harbour.

The post Cooper: Tourism ticket sales up more than 100% in October appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

source https://thenassauguardian.com/cooper-tourism-ticket-sales-up-more-than-100-in-october/