By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday hailed The Bahamas' record 7.216m visitor arrivals in 2019 as another "very impressive" sign of the industry's post-Hurricane Dorian rebound.

Dionisio D'Aguilar, pictured, minister of tourism and aviation, paid tribute to the sector's resilience while telling Tribune Business he had initially been "a little worried" that the storm would blow away his prediction that The Bahamas would beat the seven million arrivals mark. He suggested that around 50,000 stopover visitor arrivals may have been lost due to the devastation inflicted on Abaco.

Despite the loss of Abaco's tourism product, and much of Grand Bahama's, Mr D'Aguilar said total arrivals numbers had been boosted by a cruise industry that is growing "by leaps and bounds" through the expansion of private island destinations such as Royal Caribbean's Perfect Day experience at Coco Cay and Mediterranean Shipping Company's (MSC) redeveloped Ocean Cay.

Voicing optimism that The Bahamas can match or exceed last year's visitor arrivals total in 2020, he added that much depended on whether other Family Islands were able to attract the predominantly second home, vacation rental and marina business that typically goes to Abaco.

Mr D'Aguilar said The Bahamas was also prepared for any impact from the coronavirus, praising the Ministry of Health for "aggressively getting in front of this" amid fears that it could potentially spread worldwide.

"We beat the 7m mark for tourist arrivals for 2019," he told this newspaper. "We were very pleased with the numbers that came in, and they would have been considerably higher had we not been impacted by the storm and the negative publicity that followed. I was a little worried about how the storm would impact that. Stopovers were affected but the cruise industry kept churning."

A total 1.78m stopover visitors, including 1.45m from the US, also visited The Bahamas in 2019. Besides The Bahamas' proximity to the US and that nation's continued economic expansion, the minister also attributed The Bahamas' attractiveness to its ability to offer "interesting destinations that have a refreshed product with diverse experiences" throughout the nation.

Praising the Ministry of Tourism for "quite nicely turning around" the negative Dorian media coverage, he added: "We were down for two to three months after the storm, and to bounce back so swiftly was very impressive, very impressive indeed".

Looking ahead to 2020, Mr D'Aguilar said: "We'll have to see how significantly the loss of Abaco impacts our numbers going forward, and what percentage of those visitors decide to explore and visit other Family Island destinations."

He acknowledged that the potential spread of the coronavirus represented a "potential shock that can impact tourism" by making persons reluctant to travel, but said: "I'm very encouraged that the Ministry of Health is being very aggressive in getting out in front of this, making sure they have protocols in place for anything that comes up in the destination.

"The one thing I've learned about being minister of tourism is that the tourism sector is susceptible to many shocks, and this is one of them - health, hurricanes, crime - but it has proven extremely resilient. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Are we prepared? Are we ready? Yes, God forbid that anything happens or comes of it."

With 82 percent of The Bahamas' visitors coming from the US, Mr D'Aguilar said the Ministry of Tourism had "roadshows" planned for Colorado and California to support new airlift out of Denver and broaden this nation's reach to the US west coast.

"It's organically grown, but there's substantial interest on the West Coast and if we put additional marketing resources behind it we can provide a further boost," Mr D'Aguilar said.