The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas’ total resort room inventory has been slashed by 2,500 compared to 2019 levels, a top hotelier said yesterday, arguing that no indicator of industry performance should be viewed in isolation.

Robert Sands, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president, speaking after the Central Bank revealed that January 2022’s 72,000 air arrivals were equivalent to just 55.4 percent of those who came during the same month in 2019, said the reduction was partly explained by the post-Dorian and COVID drop-off in available hotel rooms.

“If I had to fathom a guess, I would say available room inventory may be down some 2,500 rooms. That may be close to 15 percent,” Mr Sands told Tribune Business. Besides the Dorian-ravaged islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco, he pointed to the Melia Nassau Beach Resort and Atlantis’ Beach Towers complex as examples of properties that have closed for renovations. Sandals Royal Bahamian, too, was closed for most of January.

The latter has now been replaced by the British Colonial Hilton’s shuttering, and the BHTA chief said there were smaller properties throughout the Family Islands that may have found it impossible to recover from the COVID-related devastation. “It all adds up,” Mr Sands said.

He spoke out after the Central Bank’s monthly economic assessment for February revealed that total air arrivals for the prior month were still some way short of pre-pandemic comparisons when 129,798 air arrivals visited The Bahamas in January 2019. That leaves a near 58,000 difference to make up.

While January 2022 was impacted by the COVID Omicron variant, which surged in both The Bahamas and key source markets, the Central Bank said: “Monthly data suggested that tourism maintained its growth trajectory, although with continuing travel sector caution amid lingering pandemic conditions.

“Provisional data from the Ministry of Tourism showed that total visitor arrivals by first port of entry advanced to 312,201 in January, from just 23,619 in the comparative 2021 period. Leading this development, air arrivals increased to 71,908 from 20,792 in the previous year, restoring 55.4 percent of the passengers received in 2019. Sea traffic, also resumed at 240,293 vis-à-vis 2,827 visitors in the prior year.

“Disaggregated by major market, total arrivals to New Providence strengthened to 162,654 in January from 13,236 in the same period last year. Underlying this outturn, the air and sea segments advanced to 53,629 and 109,025 passengers, respectively,” the Central Bank continued.

“Similarly, foreign arrivals to Grand Bahama rose to 9,768 from 1,052 a year earlier, with air and sea outcomes of 1,775 and 7,993, respectively. Likewise, traffic to the Family Islands recovered to 139,779 visitors, extending the volume of just 9,331 in the prior year, attributed to air and sea passenger intakes of 16,504 and 123,275, respectively.”

Mr Sands, in response, said of the air arrivals comparisons: “Here again you cannot look at airlift in 2022 versus airlift in 2019 in isolation. You also have to look at the availability of hotel rooms that existed in 2019 against the availability of hotel rooms that exist today. The reality is that, both as a result of the pandemic and Hurricane Dorian, and the issue with hotels under renovation, we still have not been able to get hotel room count back to the level of 2019.

“What has been taking up some of the slack is the large growth in Airbnb rooms, and that is a sector that continues to grow. All of these factors together dictate the amount of air seats coming into the destination. When you look at Abaco, Grand Bahama and some of the other islands who have not recovered due to multiple reasons, airlift is down considerably.”

Vacation rental data published by AirDNA for February 2022 revealed that room nights sold had more than doubled, increasing by 130.5 percent, while average daily rate (ADR) and ADR for entire place listings were up by 16.1 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively. “In the short-term vacation rental market, data provided by AirDNA for February revealed positive trends within the market,” the Central Bank said.

“In particular, total room nights sold increased to 98,389 compared to 50,906 in the comparative 2021 period. In particular, occupancy rates for both entire place and hotel comparable listings rose to 55.2 percent and 50.7 percent, respectively, vis-à-vis 43.6 percent and 38.7 percent a year earlier.

“Price indicators strengthened year-over-year, as the average daily rate (ADR) for hotel comparable listings firmed by 15.1 percent to $181.36 and, for entire place listings, by 8.3 percent to $486.90.”

Further focusing on the positive, Mr Sands said: “The numbers are also increasing in terms of stopover visitors month-over-month. I think it’s indicative of the level of occupancy persons are seeing, and the other reality is that we’re beginning to see increases in the average length of stay, which may have an impact on the quantum of airline seats coming into the destination.”

While not providing figures for either indicator, the BHTA president added that increased visitor length of stay reduced the need for the same volume of airline seats.