The Tribune

MAJOR Nassau/Paradise Island resorts are predicting traditionally strong occupancies over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday period.

Atlantis’s spokesman, Ed Fields, told Tribune Business: “We are sold out from Christmas through to New Year’s Eve.”

Gary Williams, Sandals Royal Bahamian’s general manager, told Tribune Business: “Business is about the same as last year for Christmas. Christmas is always slow for us, and we pick up around New Year’s.

“At Christmas our occupancies are typically around 60 per cent, and then after Christmas going into the New Year business picks up just like last year. It’s always a little slow just before Christmas, and from December 27 going into the New Year we see things pick up. We are full for New Year’s.”

Graeme Davis, Baha Mar’s president, recently said Baha Mar was seeing “robust bookings” for the Christmas/New Year and winter seasons at both the Grand Hyatt and SLS Lux properties, following the launch of the project’s marketing campaign on November 1. “The bookings are extremely encouraging for the winter season,” he added. “The promotional campaign has been very impactful, and there are very robust bookings going into the New Year and winter seasons.”

The hotel property assessments also align with the increased bookings reported yesterday by the Ministry of Tourism, which said the November 2017 to January 2018 period was ahead of prior year comparisons by 16.6 per cent.

Describing this as a “bright booking situation”, the Ministry said bookings from “top source markets” such as the US, Canada, France, the UK and Germany are ahead by more than 15 per cent.

Brazil bookings for arrivals between November 2017 and January 2018 grew by over 80 per cent, the Ministry of Tourism added. The magnitude of this increase is likely due to the fact that Brazil is a new market, just starting out for the Bahamas, while overall bookings were likely up against weak 2016 comparisons due to the fall-out from Hurricane Matthew.

Still, the Ministry of Tourism said that as a result of a “robust co-op marketing campaign” with Expedia, the largest producer of online bookings for the Bahamas, the country yielded 263,000 air tickets, an increase of 14.7 per cent year-over-year, and 250,000 room nights, a 9 per cent increase.

“The Ministry of Tourism has been working very aggressively to promote our destination in the past months in spite of the very serious challenge of hurricanes in our region and across some of our most important international markets,” the Ministry’s director-general, Joy Jibrulu, said. “We have gone directly to the editors at Travel + Leisure, USA Today and Miami Herald, among others, with post-hurricane updates and new developments for the Bahamas. We have produced informative, online content targeted directly at our key audiences, and driven effective marketing partnerships with Expedia and Trip Advisor,” she added.

“This nimble digital execution is helping us drive change and support our industry partners across the country”.