The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister says he is “anxious to get rid of quarantines and curfews”, adding that this is having an impact on the ability of Bahamian hotels to jumpstart their lucrative group travel business post-COVID.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, pictured, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business that The Bahamas’ ranking by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US State Department - together with reports on the country’s COVID cases and vaccination rates - were likely all factors influencing meeting planners’ decisions on whether to send group clients to this nation in late 2021 or 2022.

“I’m anxious for us to get going,” he said. “I’m anxious for us to get rid of quarantines and curfews, limits on sizes and how many people can congregate, and all those rules on how we live our life with COVID-19 in order to grow, especially the group business. 

“Some of the meeting planners that plan large groups, they look at destinations where it’s safe to have a meeting. Obviously they look at statistics and reports put out by the CDC and other reporting agencies in the US. Everything helps. The lower or better your ranking, the more attractive you look as a destination. My initial indications are that group market is bouncing back slower than individual or leisure travel segment.”

The Bahamas is currently back at ‘Level 4’ with the CDC because of its perceived high rate of COVID-19 infections, although most countries are in this status. It is the same with the UK and its ‘green list’ of countries approved for travel for British tourists.

Mr D’Aguilar reiterated that vaccinations remained critical if The Bahamas and its tourism industry are to return to something approaching pre-COVID levels, adding that this nation must “do as best as we can” given vaccine supplies and the “hesitancy” of some to become inoculated.

Arguing that the dramatic drop in US infection rates from 225,000 per day in January to around 14,000 per day proved the vaccine’s merits, he added: “It’s the quickest way out. I don’t see any other pathway. Our quality of life and rebound of tourism is closely linked to the level of vaccinations. There’s a direct correlation between the level of vaccinations and COVID cases.”

While tourism numbers continue to slowly rebound, the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) reported 47,332 departures for April “net of domestic passengers”. The Central Bank added: “Underlying this outturn, the dominant US component totalled 45,995, relative to just 250 a year earlier.

“In addition, non-US departures amounted to 1,337, exceeding the 195 passengers in the comparative 2020 period. On a year-to-date basis, the reduction in outward bound traffic extended to 67.9 percent from 37.1 percent in the previous year.”

And domestic demand continued to support the Bahamian vacation rental market’s April rebound, the Central Bank confirmed, with room nights sold increasing by almost 37 percent.

The regulator, in its monthly economic assessment for April, said: “Underpinning this outturn, bookings for entire place listings and hotel comparable listings grew by 38 percent and by 25.9 percent, respectively. Pricing indicators varied, as the average daily room rate (ADR) for hotel comparable listings rose by 1.8 percent to $172.42, while the ADR for entire place listings fell by 3.3 percent to $481.31.

“On a year-to-date basis, total room nights sold decreased by 14.8 percent, reflective of a 25.7 percent fall-off in private room listings and a 13.3 percent decline in bookings for entire place listings. Pricing data revealed that the ADR for both entire place and hotel comparable listings rose by 10.6 percent and by 4.7 percent, to $462.67 and $162.76, respectively.” The figures were based on data from AirDNA.