Total visitor arrivals year-to-date have increased by 46.9 percent compared to 2022 numbers, with sea arrivals dominating visitor numbers, according to the Central Bank of The Bahamas' (CBOB) latest Monthly Economic and Financial Developments (MEFD) for August 2023.

In August, the Bahamian economy continued on its growth momentum as "the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic neared completion and economic indicators returned closer their expected medium-term trajectory," the Central Bank said.

The MEFD overview explained that January to August tourism arrivals totaled 6.6 million compared to the same review period in 2022 when arrival numbers were 4.3 million.

"Contributing to this outcome, air arrivals increased to 1.3 million passengers, from 1 million in the previous year, reflecting gains in all major markets," the MEFD said.

"Similarly, sea arrivals also accelerated to 5.4 million, from 3.3 million visitors in the preceding year."

The Central Bank explained that tourism output was "buoyant" in August thanks to continued improvements in both air and sea arrivals from key source markets.

"Official data provided by the Ministry of Tourism revealed that total visitor arrivals expanded to 0.74 million in August, from 0.62 million in the corresponding period of 2022," the MEFD explained.

"Specifically, the dominant sea segment rose to 0.62 million, from 0.50 million passengers in the prior year.

"In addition, air traffic improved moderately to 0.13 million—representing 98.0 percent of the pre-pandemic high that was registered in 2019.

"Disaggregated by major port of entry, total arrivals to New Providence amounted to 0.32 million visitors, the same magnitude as the previous year. Underlying this outcome, both sea and air traffic firmed to 0.22 million and 0.11 million, respectively.

"In addition, foreign arrivals to the Family Islands rose more than one-fourth to 0.37 million, as sea and air arrivals advanced to 0.35 million and 0.02 million, respectively.

"Further, arrivals to Grand Bahama amounted to 0.05 million, surpassing the 0.04 million recorded a year earlier, as respective sea and air passengers totaled 46,031 and 3,249."

The CBOB also noted continued improvements in the short-term vacation rental market with data from AirDNA also revealing August was on trend.

The MEFD said total room nights in the short-term vacation rental market increased to 161,513 from 140,512 during the same period in 2022.

"Underlying this outturn, the occupancy rates for both entire place and hotel comparable listings firmed to 55.4 percent and 52.8 percent, respectively, compared to 55.1 percent and 51.9 percent in the previous year," the MEFD explains.

"Further, price indicators showed that year-over-year, the average daily room rate for entire place listings grew by 8.4 percent to $549.65 and for hotel comparable listings, by 10.5 percent to $197.71."

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