The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas shrugged-off Hurricane Dorian’s impact to enjoy “a record-breaking tourism year” as total 2019 stopover arrivals increased by 8.1 percent to 1.78m.

Joy Jibrilu, pictured, the Ministry of Tourism’s director-general, told the Caribbean Travel Marketplace (CTM) conference that The Bahamas would have seen even higher growth, coming on top of 2018’s “double digit” increase had it not been for the category five storm.

“We confess that our air arrival numbers for the month of September, October and November were down,” she said. “December figures are just coming out, but we were ahead year-on-year for December and overall through to November... In terms of arrival numbers you will see that we were still at 8.1 percent year-on-year. So Hurricane Dorian came and it sure dealt us a blow, but it did not knock us out.

“Without a doubt, I can say for sure that 2019 was a record-breaking year for a number of reasons thus far. We know that the figures we have inputed so far have hit the highest recorded amount of stopover visitors ever to The Bahamas with 1.78m persons travelling,” Mrs Jibrilu continued.

“Another record was the highest amount of stopover visitors ever from the United Sates of America, with 1.45m visitors from America in 2019. So, through it all, God is still being good to The Bahamas.”

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business of the numbers: “I think it’s amazing. You have all of the trade and industry partners in the Caribbean for tourism that have descended upon The Bahamas to conduct commerce, to let everybody know about what is their product offerings, to speak to travel agents and speak to people in the business about what developments have happened at their properties.”

Speaking to the conference’s economic impact on The Bahamas, he added: “I have been advised by the operators of this conference that approximately 1,000 people have come, and they are all getting into some mode of transportation, all staying at a hotel and all eating at a restaurant. Some are going on to the other islands, and what makes this so impactful is it is four short months after Dorian.

“So many people that are involved in the trade and travel industry have been able to descend on The Bahamas and see for themselves that the country is very much open for business, especially Nassau, which is the gateway to 75 percent of all foreign visitors into the country that was completely un-impacted. Hopefully they are taking Instagram pictures and putting it on Facebook that the country is open for business.”