December air arrivals up 13% on pre-COVID

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

STOPOVER visitors for December 2022, which included the peak Christmas and New Year’s tourism period, more than doubled year-over-year to beat the industry’s pre-COVID performance by almost 13 percent.

The Central Bank of The Bahamas, unveiling its January 2023 economic update yesterday, disclosed that higher spending air arrivals exceeded pre-pandemic levels as they increased from 100,000 to 200,000 yearover-year for December 2022.

“Monthly data revealed that the tourism sector sustained its robust growth trajectory in January, with output exceeding pre-pandemic levels amid relaxed COVID-19 conditions and pent-up demand for travel in key source markets,” the Central Bank said. Total visitor arrivals for December 2022, which includes cruise passengers as well as air arrivals, rose by 80 percent year-over-year.

Cruise passenger volumes increased to 700,000 from 400,000 in December 2021, representing a 75 percent gain as the sector continued to rebound from the COVID restrictions that were in place during the prior year. As a result, 2022’s performance benefited from being up against a relatively weak comparative period.

“Official data provided by the Ministry of Tourism showed that total passenger arrivals expanded to 900,000 in December from 500,000 visitors in the corresponding period of 2021,” the Central Bank said. “Specifically, the dominant sea segment almost doubled to 700,000, vis-à-vis 400,000 visitors in the previous year. In addition, air traffic grew to 200,000 from 100,000 a year earlier, surpassing pre-pandemic levels and representing 112.9 percent of air arrivals recorded in 2019.

“Disaggregated by major ports of entry, total arrivals to New Providence increased to 400,000 from 200,000 in the prior year. Underlying this outcome, the air and sea segments both advanced to 100,000 and 300,000 visitors from 90,000 and 100,000, respectively, in 2022. Further, foreign arrivals to the Family Islands amounted to 400,000 visitors compared to 300,000 in the previous year, as air and

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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas has unlocked just one-third of the boating/yachting industry’s economic benefits, marina operators argued yesterday, with last week’s exhibition exposing “gaps that Bahamians need to fill.”

Marques Williams, the Association of Bahamas Marinas (ABM) president, told Tribune Business that the first-ever Bahamas Charter Yacht Show “highlighted there is some work to be done” while also helping to forge potential partnerships between foreign and local firms and showcase what this nation has to offer as a boating and yachting destination.

“There are some gaps, spaces in the industry for Bahamians where we now need to look at filling those gaps,” he explained. “Things like getting into services to yachts, the ancillary services they require

- brokerage, charter brokerage, agents, managing yachts. At this point in time, Bahamians are not major players in those areas and we feel those are areas where we need to do more work.”

The potential for establishing a full-fledged yacht registry under the Bahamas Maritime Authority’s (BMA) supervision was also identified at the show. “There are more areas where the Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA) can shine, get into yacht registration, and be a major player in the industry,” Mr Williams added. “Those are areas of importance that we saw, and are going to work to highlight them to the Bahamas government. It has highlighted there is some work to be done.”

Peter Maury, a past ABM president, told Tribune Business that The Bahamas is “not even close” to realising the full economic potential from its yachting and marina industry. While