Tourism officials anticipate visitor arrival numbers reaching the eight million mark this year, with stopover visitor numbers projected to be 20 percent ahead of last year, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation Chester Cooper said yesterday.
Cooper, who spoke to reporters outside Cabinet, said all indicators are already pointing to 2023 being another banner year for this country in terms of tourism arrivals.
“… 2023 is already looking very strong. All of the forward bookings suggest that, all of our intelligence in the market suggests that our brand is very strong,” said Cooper.
His ministry revealed on Monday in a statement that the country’s tourism numbers reached the seven million mark once again in a return to pre-pandemic levels. According to Cooper, the numbers are a signal that the country’s economy is ripe for investment by Bahamians.
“We don’t celebrate numbers for the celebration of numbers themselves, but we believe tourism is really the catalyst for national development,” he said.
“It is the driver for Bahamian empowerment. This is how Bahamians continue to be well off. This is how we will continue to create businesses.”
Cooper said now is the time for Bahamians to create linkages to tourism, given that the numbers mean that the tourism marketplace has been expanded. He added that every metric within the tourism sector improved last year, including room occupancies, tourism spend, and new airlift and seating capacity.
“We want to continue to improve our overall experience, so we can get more and more repeat visitors,” said Cooper.
“This is only the second time that we’ve eclipsed the seven million mark, so this is extremely positive.”
According to Cooper, numbers to key Family Islands have improved compared to 2019 including islands like Andros, Cat Island, Eleuthera, and Exuma.
He said Grand Bahama and Abaco are still trailing about 80 percent behind their pre-Hurricane Dorian and pre-COVID-19 pandemic numbers.
Cooper said the tourism machinery will continue its trade missions this year to ten more cities between March and November.
