The Tribune

THE Bahamas' hotel industry generated a 6.2 per cent increase in room occupancy for the year to end-October 2011, something the Bahamas Hotel Association's (BHA) president said showed the sector was "holding its own". Stuart Bowe, senior vice-president at Atlantis, who was re-elected as BHA's president at its 59th annual general meeting (AGM), said that while overall stopover visitors will likely end down slightly in 2011, room occupancy and room rates continued to inch upward. He shared a comparison of both room occupancies and room rates from 2007 to 2011 for periods between January and July, which showed overall for the Bahamas that the recovery has continued in 2011, with room occupancies during these periods improving in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The Family Islands showed the greatest proportional improvement, Nassau/Paradise Island had marginal improvement, and Grand Bahama experienced a dip in 2010 but rebounded in 2011. He also shared with BHA members information showing room rates through the 2007 to 2011 period each year to July. This indicated that Nassau/Paradise Island (NPI) and the Bahamas overall have been able to recover much of the rate loss following a bottoming out in 2009. Grand Bahama and Family Island properties have not been as fortunate, and while their room occupancy increases fared better than Nassau between 2008 and 2011, their rates have not. "The trends suggest overall marginal improvement in revenue and occupancy for the destination," Mr Bowe said. "The variances with the Nassau/Paradise Island hotels are likely attributed to a return of group business to near pre-recession levels, which benefit the Nassau/Paradise Island hotels due to their focus on this business; coupled with easier air access into Nassau/Paradise Island and the promotional offers they are able to provide with airlines to reduce the overall travel cost." Regionally, Mr Bowe reported, according to Smith Travel Research, for 2011 year-to-date to October, hotels in the Bahamas reported a 6.2 per cent increase in room occupancy over 2010. This is the fourth highest increase in the region behind Turks and Caicos, Cancun and Curacao. "So while we are still struggling, we are comparatively holding our own and continuing to show marginal improvement. As we look at Nassau/Paradise Island major hotel performance through November, data which we have, it supports this. It also shows less than projected performance levels for January and August-September, which we mostly attribute to bad weather" added Mr Bowe. He added that additional airlift should continue to help industry performance. This includes the COPA flights now linking the Bahamas to Latin America, the introduction of additional service out of New York from JetBlue, and soon from Delta. This was intended to help counter in 2012 the estimated 15 per cent drop in business from the New York City metro area in 2011, attributed to lift loss earlier in the year. The Family Islands had seen some increase in airlift, as had Grand Bahama and we are hopeful that this will continue in 2012.