By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Family Island resorts are “starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel”, a senior tourism executive disclosed yesterday, after they cut the early 25 percent year-over-year decline by around eight percentage points during the three months to end-May 2026.

Kerry Fountain, the Bahama Out Island Promotions Board’s executive director, told Tribune Business that its 35 member properties - 80 percent of which are Bahamian-owned - are “starting to see the shift” following a sluggish first two months of 2026 that generated significant concerns about the outlook for the tourism and hotel industry outside Nassau.

Speaking to initial reports on industry performance for the five months to end-May 2026, he said: “January through May is down about 17 percent, but January to February was down 25 percent. Room nights sold, January through May, we’re down 17 percent, and we’re down 9 percent on room revenues.

“If I was to look at all the reports available to us, January through February was down 25 percent; January through March was down 21 percent; January through April was down 19 percent, and January through May was down 17 percent on room nights sold.

“Then, in terms of room revenue, we were down about 14 percent for the January through February period,” Mr Fountain added. “Then it was about 11 percent for January through March, January through April, but for January through May we are down only 9 percent. We are starting to see the shift.”

The Bahama Out Island Promotions Board chief said the narrowing of the gap between early 2026’s performance and that of the prior year varied from island to island. “The islands that are going up, in terms of room nights sold, the islands that are in the green, include Exuma, which had a pretty bad year last year. Exuma seems to be leading the charge. Acklins is up, San Salvador is up over the same January through May period last year,” Mr Fountain said.

“All the other islands are down; some slightly, some greatly. Some islands are just treading water, if I may, and some islands are drastically down. Abaco was down 15 percent, Andros was off 19 percent, and Bimini by 31 percent. That Bimini number was due to the Balearia fast ferry being out of commission for an unanticipated longer period earlier in the year. Eleuthera was down 48 percent, and Cat Island was slightly down at about 16 percent.”

As for room revenue, Mr Fountain disclosed: “The top performers would be, believe it or not, Eleuthera. Even though Eleuthera was down 48-49 percent in room nights sold, it was up 22 percent in room revenue. Exuma is also up, maybe about 18 percent. and then all the other islands are either holding steady or seeing significant declines in room revenue.

“Because of the Balearia, we saw a significant decline in Bimini. We saw a 13 percent drop in room revenue for Cat Island, and a drop in San Salvador. Again, San Salvador is the opposite of Eleuthera - room nights sold are up, but room revenue is down. That’s what we are looking at, January through March.

“When we had our meeting back on June 10 as a Promotion Board and the membership, a lot of the hoteliers acknowledged the fact that the beginning of the year was a little bit rough, but they are starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. This is reflected in the numbers which, even though they are in the red, are seven percentage points less than what they were earlier in the year.”

Mr Fountain reiterated that the loss of airlift and connectivity provided by Silver Airways from Florida, due to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy and subsequent failure in June 2025, and failure to adequately replace what could be an up to 135,000 annual seat capacity, remained a key factor behind why the 2026 first half performance of Family Island hotels is trailing the year-before period.

“The reason why our numbers continue to still be behind 2025 is because we have not replaced the loss of Silver Airways service out of Fort Lauderdale since June 2025. The very fact we are only 9 percent down on room revenue, and 17 percent down on room nights sold, shows the hotels are holding but we really need to reinstate the type of service needed from south Florida to replace what was lost with Silver Airways.”

Mr Fountain said he did not “want to downplay” American Airlines’ introduction of expanded service to Abaco and North Eleuthera, and efforts by smaller carriers such as Tropic Ocean, Aztec, Makers Air and Tradewind to fill the gap, but added that the latter group’s small planes cannot compensate fully for the loss of Silver Airways’ 54 and 70-plus seater aircraft.

Pledging that the tourism industry is “absolutely” working on a comprehensive strategy to replace Silver Airways’ seat capacity, the Promotion Board chief added: “We are also looking at gateways beyond Fort Lauderdale. We talk about sustainability not just in terms of eco-tourism, but sustainability also means financial sustainability.

“We want to be guided by the data that the Ministry of Tourism has tons of, and which points to what gateways we should have airlift coming to Marsh Harbour, North Eleuthera, Rock Sound and Georgetown, Exuma. We want to ensure we are not stepping on someone’s feet if they are operating that route sustainably, because if we add some seats what happens is there is some deterioration, and if these guys stop making money and they deploy their aircraft to other destinations.”

Mr Fountain, noting that Bahamian tourism and the Family Islands are competing on value, rather than price, said the Promotion Board is offering visitors a variety of air fare credits to ease the access cost “because we realise it’s relatively expensive, given our proximity, to get into the Out Islands”.

A four-night stay at a member hotel will produce a $250 credit to air fare costs. Europeans, flying in via Nassau, will have one airline ticket paid if they stay between four and six nights, and two tickets covered if they spend a week or longer. Boaters who dock at a Promotion Board resort’s marina, and stay in its hotel, will receive a $300 “dock and stay” credit if they stay for four nights’ minimum.

Credits will also be provided to “island hopping” private pilots, with Mr Fountain adding: “We have issue with private pilots feeling we are charging too much for the fees they are paying.”