The Bahamas attracted more than seven million tourists in 2022, signaling a return to pre-pandemic tourism arrivals, Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation Chester Cooper said yesterday.
“The fact that we have exceeded expectations and attracted more than seven million visitors to our country in 2022, something only done once before in a single year, was no accident,” Cooper said.
“Countless stakeholders in the Bahamian tourism industry, including our international partners, worked tirelessly to achieve this.
“We sought to strengthen relationships to open new air routes. We sought to make travel to The Bahamas easier, more accessible, and affordable, and took the message that we were open for business during our missions and provided insight on our wonderful offerings to the world.”
A total of 7,000,706 people visited The Bahamas in 2022, according to the ministry.
The Bahamas had 1.9 million visitors in 2021 and 1.7 million in 2020.
In 2019, a record 7.2 million people visited The Bahamas.
In 2020, the world saw the spread of COVID-19. In March 2020, The Bahamas closed its borders and did not reopen them until July.
While tourism numbers were low for much of the pandemic in comparison to previous years, tourism officials predicted that once the pandemic subsided, pent-up demand coupled with The Bahamas’ proximity to the United States would mean a surge in visitors.
Cooper said visitor arrivals in the second half of 2022 outperformed what was seen in the second half of 2019.
“In 2022, 1,470,244 visitors came to our shores by air; another 5,530,462 visitors arrived by sea,” he said.
The Ministry of Tourism said that in December 2022, total arrivals eclipsed 900,000 visitors “more than any month in our history”.
The ministry said air and sea arrivals for 2022 were up 233 percent compared to 2021 and 3.4 percent shy of arrivals in 2019.
Cruise arrivals in 2022 increased by nearly 400 percent, the ministry noted.
In December 2022, Nassau Cruise Port Ltd. said it welcomed six ships on December 5 and another six ships the following day, the first time the port recorded six ships per day for two consecutive days.
The cruise port expects to welcome over four million passengers in 2023.
Cooper said, “What the Ministry of Tourism, Investments, and Aviation [is] forecasting so far and what forward bookings indicate is that we are on track to break records in 2023.
“We don’t see this slowing down anytime soon.”
The ministry said there was also an increase in first-time arrivals with increases from the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
