The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Resort occupancies for September are around 10 percent ahead of prior year comparatives, a senior hotelier revealed yesterday, adding that “we’re seeing less dips and valleys” in the tourism calendar.

Robert Sands, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president, told Tribune Business that the traditional seasonality in New Providence’s year-round tourism cycle is starting to “level out” with the typical September drop-off “not as pronounced and not as deep” compared to pre-COVID years.

Usually the slowest month of the year, due to a combination of factors such as children returning to school and coinciding with the peak of hurricane season, he added that while September’s advance bookings could “wash down” to a 7.5 percent year-over-year jump the data still showed the industry continues to improve.

Predicting that the hotel and tourism industry will “reach a point of stabilisation” in 2024, with stopover visitor numbers matching pre-pandemic levels, Mr Sands told this newspaper that achieving significant growth will become harder from next year onwards with The Bahamas having to rely more on efficiency gains and increased room supply as still-closed resorts come back online.

While the British Colonial’s anticipated re-opening before year-end 2023 will help with the latter objective, he added that The Bahamas must “continue to remain relevant in terms of value for money” that it provides overseas visitors by tackling the cost and ease of doing business, including the reliability and price of Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) electricity supply.

With The Bahamas poised to enter the two slowest months in its tourism calendar, Mr Sands told Tribune Business: “There’s certainly a slowdown, but it’s not as pronounced and not as deep as in previous years. We are still seeing growth year-on-year when we compare comparative months, September and October, and advance bookings. 

“We continue to see growth throughout the rest of the year in terms of advance bookings. While we don’t have a definite position on the booking window until the end of a particular period, certainly I would say in terms of percentage points we are anywhere around 10 percent [up] for occupancy compared to last year for September.

“It could wash down to 7.5 percent, but advance bookings are currently at that level for September and October. Bear in mind those numbers are based on everything remaining equal.” That latter reference is the imminent early September hurricane season peak, with one storm presently threatening the west Florida coast as a potential major hurricane, and the BHTA president added: “Let’s pray we do not meet any unforeseen stumbling blocks for the rest of the year.”

Asked whether The Bahamas is close to achieving year-round tourism, with seasonal lows largely eliminated, Mr Sands said that while New Providence was heading in this direction “we still have a bit of work to do in the Family Islands”. He added: “I think we’re seeing less dips and valleys.

“I think we’re beginning to see a levelling out, certainly for the fist six to seven, eight months of the year, and then towards the end of August and September will always be a challenge in terms of transient family business. Then we begin to see the rebounds in October, November and December. When I say levelling out, the seasonality is not as distinct, the dips are not as great. They’re beginning to even out a little bit more.”

With the September and October figures indicating The Bahamas’ largest industry “continues to improve”, Mr Sands said this leaves the sector well-positioned to hit - and possibly surpass - pre-COVID levels from a stopover visitor perspective in 2024.

The industry has trailed just a few percentage points behind 2019 figures for year-to-date, with cruise passengers the dominant factor in the Government’s push to achieve a record eight million visitor arrivals this year, and Mr Sands said: “I think we have the opportunity next year I think to reach the point of stabilisation and any real growth next year will have to be the result of efficiency and also additional room inventory, certainly from a New Providence perspective.

“I think next year will be the defining year in terms of stopover visitors. I think that will certainly be assisted by the prospective scheduled opening of the British Colonial which will add additional rooms. I think we’ll still have momentum and the additional rooms will assist us.”

Mr Sands acknowledged that The Bahamas still has to address “issues in terms of product and our guest experience”, with both the private sector, Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation and other agencies “working very hard to ensure the satisfaction level of customers continues to improve”.

“This remains top-of-mind for operators,” he added: “There’s still lots of work to be done but we’re moving in the right direction at this time. One of the biggest issues will always be continuing to remain relevant in terms of value for money. The cost of business remains high, we have to work on that. We have to work on consistent, reliable and affordable energy for New Providence and the Family Islands.

“We are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel with the Ministry of Tourism putting in place standards and codes of conduct for taxi drivers. There’s a plethora of issues that stakeholders have been working on to improve the guest experience in the destination. Everything is trending in the right direction, and we don’t see any headwinds ahead right now.”

Pointing to what he described as “substantive opportunities for growth in the Family Islands”, which rely on eliminating seasonality and increasing visitors’ lengths of stay and spend, Mr Sands said the late 2023 launch of airlift to Nassau from US west coast by Jet Blue and Alaska Airlines will further diversify the country’s tourism source markets.

“When we can source heads in beds from multiple locations throughout our prime market, that augurs well for the sustained growth of business throughout the US and takes a lot of pressure off our traditional gateways,” he said. “It also creates an opportunity for more time to be spent in the destination bearing in mind that coming from California to Nassau is a shorter flying time than from California to Hawaii, which is a huge market for the US.”