7.2M VISITORS UP TO END OF SEPTEMBER
NASSAU, Bahamas, October 31, 2023 — Tourism figures for 2023 are more than 50 percent ahead of last year’s numbers and have already smashed the pre-pandemic record of 7.2 million arrivals in a single year, The Nassau Guardian reported today in an article written by Taneka Thompson.
Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation Chester Cooper celebrated the achievement in the House of Assembly yesterday, telling parliamentarians that statistics up to the end of September 2023 show the country’s tourism numbers are outpacing 2019’s figures by more than 30 percent.
“Tourism occupancy, average daily room rates and tourism spend have all increased, leading to the achievement of rapid GDP growth and record low levels of unemployment,” Cooper told Parliament.
He said the country’s tourism product has seen an increase in new visitors and traffic from almost every market.
He attributed the success to strategic partnerships, increased airlift, successful promotion, and trade missions improving the country’s visibility.
In 2019, The Bahamas set a record for visitor arrivals when 7.2 million tourists visited.
Cooper said the country surpassed this figure at the end of September 2023.
He added, “Which means as I stand here today, we have exceeded full year 2019 numbers already. So that record has fallen and this year is already our new record year.
“Today is a new record. Tomorrow is a new record. This week will set a new record and every day after for the remainder of this year will be setting a new benchmark for tourism arrivals.
“In the first nine months of this year, we did what was done in all of 2019. There were 7,209,165 arrivals by air and sea from January through the end of September 2023.
“The breakdown is that 1,332,752 came by air and 5,876,413 came by sea, as total arrivals are outpacing 2019 by 33 percent,” he said.
From January to September 2023, total international air and sea arrivals were higher compared to the same months of 2022 and 2019.
Up to September 2023, foreign air and sea arrivals increased by 50.4 percent compared to the same period of 2022, he added.
Cruise arrivals are also soaring, he said, and as of September are 60 percent higher than the corresponding period in 2022 and 45 percent higher than the same period in 2019.
As of the end of September, foreign air arrivals – stopover visitors – are up 20 percent over the same period in 2022 and have matched the total number of stopover visitors for 2019.
See complete article in The Nassau Guardian at https://www.thenassauguardian.com/news/new-tourism-record/article_0c7ab58e-77eb-11ee-883b-0b9305a47fea.html
