Tourism arrivals declined by six per cent for the second month in a row, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism for the month of May - a reflection of the current economic climate's influence on the travel market.

According to the ministry, there was a decline in arrivals for both April and May when compared to the same period of 2007, something the ministry attributed to setbacks experienced in the United States.

Preliminary figures indicate that there was a decline of nine per cent in arrivals from the US to the Bahamas.

This was fuelled by a "slow down" in the economy, a weakened US dollar, fluctuating fuel costs and the US housing situation.

Fortunately for the Bahamas, visitor arrivals from Canada continued to remain strong, rising by 20 per cent for May, down slightly from the 27 per cent April increase.

The ministry attributed Canada's strong performance to an aggressive and strong Bahamian presence as well as the work of the marketing agency Punch, the stronger Canadian economy and the country's access to direct airlift.


However, the ministry further noted that the increase in the number of stopover visitors from Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America were not enough to offset the decline in arrivals to the Bahamas for May.

The ministry further reported that when examining arrivals to islands as a first port of entry, the figures were down again by 13 per cent.

Further, the ministry reported:

"Cruise arrivals to the Out Islands were up by first port of entry because many of the major cruise lines such as? Disney Cruises and Royal Caribbean all brought in more passengers to the. Out Islands (as a first port of call) in May, 2008, than in May, 2007, despite the fact that Princess Cay, which normally closes at the.end of May, closed early and did not receive any cruise passengers after the 14th of the month (according to Immigration/Customs and the agent R H Curry) hence the number of cruise arrivals to Eleuthera declined tremendously.

The Princess ships that normally went to Princess Cay were re-routed to Europe. In addition, Great Stirrup Cay was not open in May.

Additionally, the ministry said the decline in arrivals for May put a strain on the YTD air and sea arrivals and pulled it down. By the end of May, 2008, the Bahamas overall YTD was down by one per cent.