By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Cruise tourism injects around $1.25bn into the Bahamian economy annually, the deputy prime minister estimated yesterday, and accounts for just over one-fifth of total visitor spending.

Chester Cooper, also minister of tourism, investments and aviation, hailed a “record breaking” 2024 with total arrivals up year-over-year by almost 17 percent at 11.22m thanks largely to the increasing volume of cruise visitors.

He added that The Bahamas is seeing an “uptick” in visitor spend, with cruise passenger expenditure standing at $130 on average and stopover guests averaging $2,800 per visit. There had also been an increase in average daily room rates (ADRs charged by hotels, a key indicator of visitor demand and spending strength.

“We’re seeing an uptick in spending from cruise visitors. We estimate it now to be in the $130 per passenger region on average, and I think the number for stopovers is in the region of $2,800 per guest. We see an uptick overall in these numbers. We’ve seen an uptick in the average daily rates charged by hotels, which is a key indicator of spending of stopover guests,” Mr Cooper said.

“The 2024 impact of cruise tourism report by Business Research and Economic Advisers, as commissioned by the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association, has ranked The Bahamas as number one in the Caribbean and Latin America in terms of total overall economic benefit from the cruise business.

“These passengers and crew visits, along with additional expenditures by the cruise lines, generated a total of $654m in cruise tourism expenditure in The Bahamas in 2023-2024, according to this report, compared to $405m in 2018. This is a staggering 61 percent overall increase.

“Our estimates suggest that when we add direct employment, taxes, levies and the overall benefits, it exceeds $1.25bn, with overall tourist spending in the $6bn range. Notwithstanding, the Government has engaged a study to further calculate and examine the overall economic benefit of the cruise business to the Bahamian economy.”

Mr Cooper said more than 11.2 combined air and sea arrivals were recorded in 2024 to make it the “best year ever” for tourism. The Bahamas welcomed 1.15m visitors in December 2024 alone, setting a new record for number of arrivals in a month.

“At the end of 2024, The Bahamas recorded a record-breaking 11.22 m overall foreign air and sea arrivals, surpassing the previous year’s numbers by 16.2 percent and 2019 figures by 54.7 percent. This is the best year ever, exceeding the 2023 record,” said Mr Cooper.

“Out of that number, foreign air arrivals across all destinations exceeded 1.72 m, equalling the 1.72 m arrivals recorded in 2023 and surpassing the 1.67 m foreign air arrivals recorded in 2019 by 3.3 percent. December 2024 was the best month ever in terms of arrivals with 1.15 m visitors, posting 14 percent ahead of December 2023 and 62 percent ahead of December 2019.

“The above results are posted notwithstanding the interruptions of Hurricane Milton, Oscar and the US elections. We point out further that the limited capacity in room inventory further dampens the trajectory of growth in air arrivals.”