The Tribune

Foreign air and sea arrivals to the Out Islands increased by 10 per cent year-over-year between January and July 2014, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Tourism’s research statistics and scanning units.

The statistics, recently released, show that foreign air arrivals to the Family Islands rose by 1 per cent compared to the same period last year.

However, in 2014, air and sea arrivals increased in every month except March, which saw a decrease of 7.5 per cent compared to 2013.

“Air arrivals increased to Andros, Berry Islands, Bimini, Cat Cay, Exuma, Inagua, Long island and San Salvador between January to July 2014, compared to the same period of 2013,” officials said.

Stopover visitor arrivals to the Family Islands between January to May 2014 were better than when the financial meltdown occurred in 2008.

“Stopover arrivals to the Out Islands grew by 9 per cent between January to May 2014. In May year-to-date 2014, stopover visitor arrivals were up from the United States, Europe, Latin America, Australia, Africa and the Middle East,” officials said.

In terms of hotel performance, some resorts increased revenue by increasing the room nights sold. Others increased their average daily room rates (ADRs) to increase room revenue.

“Hotel occupancy, ADR and room revenue were all up for the Out Islands as a whole. Key markets like the US, Europe and Latin America were all up to the Out Islands. Stopover business from Canada to the Out Islands faltered between January to May 2014, as Grand Bahama appeared to siphon off some of these stopovers,” officials said.

“But despite the challenge that the Out Islands have in reclaiming their market share of Canadian stopover business from Grand Bahama, the outlook is that the Out Islands will regain the stopover numbers that were lost because of the financial meltdown of 2008.”