By: Dana Niland – September 6, 2023
Tourism is booming in The Bahamas, with visitor numbers ahead of where they were before the onset of the pandemic.
The country’s performance has outpaced projections for the first seven months of 2023, with more than 5.89 million total visitors from January through the end of July, according to new data from the Ministry of Tourism.
Current tourism performance in The Bahamas puts the country well on the way to closing out the year at 8 million plus visitors, combining air and sea arrivals.
Of the 5,893,118 total visitors who came to The Islands of The Bahamas in the first seven months of the year, 1,133,494 arrived by air and 4,759,624 by sea.
July year-to-date arrivals are pacing 59 percent ahead of 2022 and 30 percent ahead of 2019, the busiest year on record.
Comparing 2023 overall arrivals by month, March arrivals peaked at 951,311, making it the busiest arrivals month in history.
Overall tourist spending is also up, officials said.
Major hotels in Nassau and Paradise Island experienced occupancy rates for 2023 eclipsing those of corresponding periods in 2019 and 2022.
Average Daily Rate is up an average of 59 percent compared to 2019, and room revenues are up 42 percent for the same period.
More than 60 percent of visitors came to The Bahamas for the first time, with arrivals from nearly every region showing an increase over the same period last year.
