By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM Director General Joy Jibrilu said hotels are seeing record occupancy levels for the Thanksgiving period and a target of one million stopover visitors by year-end is within reach.

She said projections for the first and second quarters of 2022 are positive despite a fourth wave of the COVID virus affecting the United States and European countries.

“Our hotels are stating that they are seeing record occupancies for the Thanksgiving period,” she said during a press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday.

“In fact, we are seeing occupancies in the hotels 90 percent and beyond so numbers are above that of what we saw in 2019, which was a banner year for us. And the good news is it’s not just hotels in Nassau, Paradise Island, but the Family Islands who have been doing well throughout our recovery period. And this confirms the position that The Bahamas is ahead in terms of its recovery when we look at where the world is globally.”

Ms Jibrilu said The Bahamas could record its one million stopover guests for the year, a once ambitious target set by former Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar.

“When we floated that number in September, that seemed like a far-off dream,” she said. “We said wow, what if we reached one million stopover visitors in 2021, unbelievable, no one would imagine it. But that dream is a possibility and so that would be great.”

“But it’s more than that at this stage. We’re realising that during our recovery, it’s not necessarily about the quantity of numbers, it’s the quality of numbers. So, what we have seen that’s been tremendous is that our hotel occupancy rates, while they’re good, what we call the ADR, average daily rate for these hotel properties, they’ve not dropped, they’ve increased. Visitor spend has increased so what we’re hoping to see is real uptick in economic input into the destination. So, I think that’s going to be very interesting at the end of the year to say, yes, we made our goal of a million but more than that, the spend that we saw in 2021 was equal to that of a great year and so that’s what this year is unveiling for us.”

The improving tourism numbers and forecast come as fears grow about a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although cases have recently declined in The Bahamas, some countries are again imposing restrictions, which can affect the ability of their residents to move and travel.

“As we look at projections, as I stand now, for the first and second quarter of 2022, our projections are trending very, very well,” Ms Jibrilu said. “Sometimes I look at the projections, I don’t just look at them in the context of The Bahamas, which is, of course, my primary interest; I then say how are we comparing regionally, how are we comparing globally? And it does give cause for you to look two and three times and say is The Bahamas really doing that well? So, if we look at where we are now, we’re in a very, very good place.

Ms Jibrilu said a move among some countries to avoid policies that wound the economy could help maintain the positive forecast for tourism in The Bahamas.

“The thing with COVID-19,” she said, “is that it is such a dynamic situation, the situation changes daily. I look at Germany and I look at France, I look at the rest of Europe. (We’re) so excited with the airlift coming out of those places. But we see the measures that the governments of those countries are going to put in place that can potentially restrict people leaving those jurisdictions.

“The United States, I think, they too have reached a stage where they too recognise that they are balancing the economy with a health crisis and so in terms of measures for closures, I don’t think that’s an immediate concern that we in The Bahamas or anyone in the tourism sphere has.

“I think a lot of countries are at that place where they are making the hard decisions to say vaccinations are the key and I should state that our hotel partners are telling us and it’s being confirmed by the travel health visa, up to 70 percent of all visitors coming to The Bahamas are fully vaccinated and that’s a big plus as well.”

The US Centres for Disease Control recently improved The Bahamas’ travel rating advisory from level four to level three.

Ms Jibrilu said that shift is already positively impacting the tourism industry.

“If we look at our major resort properties,” she said, “Atlantis, Baha Mar, a lot of their business is predicated upon group business. They have larger conference facilities, meeting rooms, meeting spaces and that’s really where a great deal of their business comes from. I want to say that’s the cream of the business for them. With a level four rating many, many companies had put in place a measure that said their companies would not travel to jurisdictions where the CDC had a level four rating and so this was having an impact on our groups, our conferences, our ability to host the major events, so Battle for Atlantis, the hoops event they are having there that is attracting huge amount of visitors. Those events were really under question marks with the level four rating.

“With the level three rating, all of a sudden that means that every manner of business can return to the jurisdiction. And we’re seeing it immediately. I think the hotels will tell you that the level of interest in The Bahamas as a destination has been tremendous and so they are going to benefit.”