By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

TRAVEL agents say there has been a significant increase in inbound visitors coming to The Bahamas for the upcoming Christmas holiday but outgoing and domestic business is softer than normal.

Alice Pratt, general manager of Going Places, told Tribune Business: “This is similar to what the US is talking about in a rebound. We are all seeing this, and if you have spoken to any of the airlines, they are fully booked out. We don’t have all of the schedule we had pre-COVID-19, but obviously we have pent up demand or, as some would call it, revenge travel. So all of that is helping with the uptick as well.”

Car rental companies are showing limited availability, causing rates to go “through the roof” as supply and demand issues resonate in a market still not back to pre-COVID-19 volumes. However, Demetria Moss, general manager of Premier Travel, said outbound flights are not as strong as incoming travel because the local economy is still soft.

She said: “The only time when there is an influx of domestic travel is when there is a regatta on one of the Family Islands. Then we would see a huge bump-up in domestic travel demand.

“Now, what may happen over the holiday period, people may decide to go over to see family members for a brief period and you may see a rise in flights, but a lot of persons over the past five years have been routing their travel into spending the holidays in the US. Travel going out but, for right now, it is not as busy as we would like it.”