The Ministry of Tourism, Investments & Aviation is excited to reveal that tourism performance has outpaced projections for the first seven months of 2023, with The Bahamas recording more than 5.89 million arrivals from January through the endof July. Current tourism performance puts the country well on the way to closing out the year at8 million plus visitors.

Of the 5,893,118 total visitors who came to The Islands of The Bahamas in the first sevenmonths of the year, 1,133,494 arrived by air and 4,759,624 by sea. July year-to-date arrivals arepacing 59 percent ahead of 2022 and 30 percent ahead of 2019, the busiest year on record.

Comparing 2023 overall arrivals by month, March arrivals peaked at 951,311, making it thebusiest arrivals month in our history. To contextualize how significant the gains were in the firstseven months of 2023, during the entirety of 2022, 1,470,244 visitors came to our shores by air;another 5,530,462 visitors arrived by sea.

Importantly, overall tourist spending is also up significantly. Major hotels in Nassau andParadise Island experienced occupancy rates for 2023 eclipsing those of corresponding periods in2019 and 2022. Average Daily Rate (ADR) is up an average of 59% compared to 2019 and roomrevenues are up 42% for the same period. More than 60% of visitors came to The Bahamas forthe first time, with arrivals from nearly every region showing an increase over the same periodlast year.

The Hon. I. Chester Cooper, Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) and Minister of Tourism,Investments & Aviation said, “The stronger than expected results speak to vibrancy of TheBahamas’ brand, methodical business strategies and the hard work of tourism industryprofessionals and stakeholders.”

“We are seeing record arrivals, because we have all worked together to resuscitate our tourismindustry, coming out of the pandemic, and, because we continue to improve our tourismproduct,” said DPM Cooper.

In our cruise business, The Port of Nassau welcomed the largest share of cruise arrivals followedby The Berry Islands (Coco Cay), Bimini (mainland and Ocean Cay), Half Moon Cay, GrandBahama and Abaco (Castaway Cay), respectively. Overall cruise arrivals, January through July,are up 72.1% over the corresponding period last year, and 43% ahead of the 2019 historic cruisearrival figures. Overall air stopover arrivals, which represent, “heads in beds”, surpassed sameperiod 2022 numbers by 24%, and matched 2019 figures.

The destination’s biggest market for visitors remains the United States, representing 90% ofoverall visitor arrivals, followed by Canada, and the United Kingdom and Europe. The LatinAmerican market is gaining momentum in its steady return to pre-pandemic stopover levels.Looking at visitor trends, from January through July, 70% of all stopover visitors came to TheBahamas primarily for a vacation, 15% for weddings and honeymoons, 6% to play in casinos,4% for business and 5% for “other/undisclosed” reasons.

DPM Cooper further elaborated on the country’s impressive tourism performance:“With a better developed downtown to complement the new cruise port and added destinationswithin The Bahamas coming on stream, the numbers will only continue to grow, if we continueto deliver great service and experiences. The plan for the redevelopment of Family Islandairports and the construction of the new airport in Grand Bahama will reap rewards forBahamians well into the future.”

“The last seven months of 2022 were the strongest in our history, prior to 2023. The first sevenmonths of 2023 exceeded the expectations of tourism officials. Our job is to stay ahead of thedemand.”

Cooper explained that government initiatives like the restructured Tourism DevelopmentCorporation will present entrepreneurship opportunities for Bahamians.

“We are experiencing explosive growth in tourism that can no longer be explained by pent uppost-pandemic demand,” the Minister said.

“Great jobs and career opportunities are to be had in tourism, but there is also massive potentialfor ownership. The government is putting in place systems to allow Bahamians access to thetraining, certification, support and capital they need to take advantage of the country’s popularityas a tourist destination.”