By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Family Island hotels enjoyed a 9 percent increase in room revenue for the 2025 first half as the industry was urged to “get into the 21st century” on bookings and sales distribution.

Kerry Fountain, the Bahama Out Promotion Board’s executive director, told Tribune Business that - with room nights sold by member hotels that were open during the same period in 2024 also ahead by 5 percent for the six months to end-June 2025 - the sector could be satisfied with its performance as it seeks to drive annual occupancy rates up from the average 45 percent.

“If you look at room nights sold for all our member hotels, we’re up about 5 percent compared to the January through June period last year,” he told this newspaper. “We’re looking at about 53,325 room nights sold through January to June 2025 compared to 50,883 last year January through June. That’s about a 5 percent increase.

“If you look at room revenues, they increased at a higher pace. Room revenues were up maybe about 9 percent this year, January through June compared to January through June last year.” Breaking down Family Island hotel performance by island, Mr Fountain said Cat Island was up year-over-year by 8 percent on room nights sold, while Abaco, Acklins, Bimini, Eleuthera and Long Island were also ahead.

Andros was said to be flat, while Exuma was “significantly down”. However, Mr Fountain said the start of Bahamasair’s direct airlift to Exuma from Fort Lauderdale at the end of June should start to turn the island’s performance around.

Room revenues for the 2025 first half showed similar trends where Abaco, Acklins, Eleuthera, Long Island and San Salvador were ahead of 2024 numbers, Cat Island and Andros were flat, and Exuma down. “That’s the lay of the land,” Mr Fountain said. “In general we’re pleased, but we know we need to do some homework between now and the end of the year to salvage the service we lost when Silver Airways went bankrupt.”

The Promotion Board chief, meanwhile, told Tribune Business that “the onus” is now on Family Island hotels to use “the right” third-party tour operators and travel agents to drive bookings to their properties and break average annual occupancy rates that are traditionally below 50 percent.

“If you look historically at the average annual occupancy of Family Island hotels, it’s usually around 45 percent,” Mr Fountain said. “That tells me, OK, while the Ministry of Tourism and Bahama Out Island Promotion Board are trying to improve airlift, access and affordability, the onus now is on our hotels to improve their sales distribution mechanism.

“It cannot be that out hotels just rely 100 percent on direct bookings. They have to now start working with the right tour operators and wholesalers, start to work with the right online travel agents and work with travel agents selling The Bahamas.

“We understand when working with these sales distribution outlets that you have to pay a commission. But the objective is to use third party distributors to increase your first-time visitors and, once they get to your hotel and enjoy the experience, the hotels need to figure out a way to capture their e-mail address and contacts to market to them directly in the future,” Mr Fountain added.

“We have to start to use these third party distributors to bring in first-time business. It’s going to cost a bit of money, but it’s just one time. That’s the acquisition cost to get first-time customers. Now, if we do what we need to do at our end, that’s a customer you will keep for life, market to them directly and capture them.

“It’s a two-way street. We need our hotels... some are doing it a bit, but not all, to get into the 21st century in terms of sales distribution.” Mr Fountain added that The Bahamas is also poised, as a high-end destination, to benefit from travel trends benefiting the so-called “luxury” market provided this nation ensures “we deliver the value and experience that luxury travellers expect”.

This, he added, requires The Bahamas to focus on workforce development and ensuring that utilities such as Bahamas Power & Light (BPL), the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) and Cable Bahamas provide electricity, Internet and communications on a reliable and consistent basis.