The year is off to an even grimmer start for Grand Bahama, as first quarter results for this year's tourism performance revealed that the island suffered an over 40 percent decline in air arrivals.
Grand Bahama suffered a near 17 percent decline in overall visitor arrivals. This was recorded as the "largest decline" in visitors for the quarter when compared to New Providence and Family Islands.
The dampening effects of Hurricane Matthew were carried over in 2017, which proved to have an adverse impact on the island's sea and air arrivals.
While air arrivals took a heavy blow, cruise arrivals also declined by 12 percent.
The island's tourism performance is a crucial survival tool for Grand Bahamians, who are anxious for the reopening of the Grand Lucayan strip and overall economic improvement.
However, the three-piece hotel strip, which was responsible for nearly 1,000 jobs, remains closed to date since the passage of Hurricane Matthew in October.
The Central Bank of The Bahamas' (CBOB) monthly economic report, released yesterday, provided the latest official data from the Ministry of Tourism for the first quarter of 2017.
"In terms of the major markets, the largest decline in visitors occurred in Grand Bahama (16.6 percent), which lost a significant segment of its room capacity following the closure of a major resort after the passage of Hurricane Matthew," the report states.
"Accordingly, the island recorded a contraction in air arrivals by 41.2 percent, outpacing the 17.2 percent reduction in the prior year, while the cruise segment decreased by 12 percent, in contrast to a slight 1.4 percent uptick in 2016."
Meanwhile, The Bahamas' tourism sector's overall passenger traffic declined by 2.2 percent, after a 0.4 percent decline in the same period last year.
The Central Bank said that air arrivals fell by 9.4 percent and sea arrivals by 0.2 percent for the first quarter.
On the other hand, Cuba had the "most significant gain" in visitor arrival growth last year by 13 percent, according to the regulator.
"Over the last 5 years, the growth rates were strongest for Cuba (8.1 percent), the Dominican Republic (5.1 percent) and Jamaica (4.6 percent), while for the Bahamas the average was 2.4 percent," the report adds.
On the domestic side, New Providence total arrivals went up by 7.3 percent. The capital saw an increase in sea visitors by 14.7 percent but air arrivals declined by 9.8 percent.
Total visitor arrivals for Family Islands were down by 11 percent. The sea component was down by 13.6 percent and air arrivals up by 9.4 percent.

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