By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Stopover visitor spending throughout The Bahamas has increased by more than $500 or 25.4 percent per person compared to pre-COVID levels, tourism’s top official asserted yesterday.

Latia Duncombe, the Ministry of Tourism’s director-general, told the media briefing by the Prime Minister’s Office that average per capita spending by stopover visitors has risen from $2,070 in 2019 to 2,596 last year having steadily risen since the world emerged from the pandemic.

She added that average daily spending by stopovers, or air arrivals, who represent The Bahamas’ highest-yielding visitors had grown from $323.37 in 2019 to $425.50 in 2023 - a rise of some 31.6 percent, although it is unclear how much of this may be due to inflation.

Mrs Duncombe said average per capita cruise passenger spending had shown similar trends via a 41 percent increase from $77.6 in 2019 to $109.4 last year. “Stopover, cruise and day visitors spent an estimated $5.39bn in The Bahamas in 2023. Stopover visitors on average spent $2,595.57 per person per trip,” she added.

“As the arrivals to the destination grew stronger, so did the average expenditure of the cruise arrivals to the destination. In 2023, the new, completely revamped cruise port in Nassau at the Prince George Wharf opened, and was home to many new shops, restaurants and new amenities that gave cruise passengers more to spend their money on in the downtown area.”

Mrs Duncombe revealed that, in 2023, the average length of stay for stopover visitors was 6.1 days with Nassau and Paradise Island visitors averaging 5.7 day stays, Grand Bahama visitors averaging 7.3 day stays; and Family Islands guests recording an average stay of 7.3 days.

She added that total visitor arrivals for the first five months 2024 represent a 13.5 percent increase from the same period last year, which saw 9.65m arrivals. The Ministry of Tourism is now targeting 12m visitors by the end of the year.

Mrs Duncombe said: “We’ve seen 4.8m visitors that visited our shores for the period of January to May.... There’s also some commentary as it relates to performance because we are 13.5 percent above last year, which was our best year ever. We saw 9.65m visitors last year, and DPM Cooper said the number for this year is 12m. So we’re certainly working together to see those results.”

Total air arrivals for the first five months of 2024 were slightly ahead of pre-COVID levels, standing at 821,334 through May compared to 812,534 for the same period in 2019 - a 1.1 percent increase. However, total foreign arrivals for May were 18.6 percent ahead of 2023 levels and some 52.2 percent up on 2019.

Mrs Duncombe said the amount of available hotel rooms in the destination has decreased from 17,618, spread over 322 hotels, in 2019 to 16,105 rooms across 283 hotels currently. She added that the closure and demolition of the Melia resort has left a gap in the market for family all-inclusive resorts and the Ministry of Tourism is working on ways to provide that product.

The tourism chief added: “So in 2019 we had plus 300 hotels and 17,600 rooms. Today, based on the information from our hotel licensing department, we have 283 hotels and 16,000 rooms. So there is a difference in terms of the amount of rooms that we have to offer to our visitors

“A notable mention that I will also share is that the family all-inclusive has been something that our visitors have been asking so much about. This was an amazing product when we had Melia. So this is one of the things that our investments team are looking into, and they’re doing their part from that perspective.” Short-term rentals via AirBnB currently provide an additional 5,090 room listings.

Ms Duncombe said future arrivals are currently projected to be on trend with last year’s bookings but more are expected as visitors have began booking trips closer to their departure date.

She said: “Information that we’ve gotten from the period for June 2024 shows that for the next three to six months airline tickets that were issued are pacing the same as last year.

“We have noticed a shortening in the booking window, and so although these are what we see, we do expect growth in the months to come because visitors are now booking a little shorter, rather than booking so far in advance.”

Mrs Duncombe said cruise arrivals increased by 16 percent over the same period in 2023. “From a cruise perspective, we’ve welcomed 3.9m visitors to our shores, and we’ve seen a very huge increase,” she said.

“Now, when we report on cruise numbers, it’s always the first port of entry because sometimes we may have a cruise vessel that visits multiple ports within The Bahamas at any one point in time.”