The Central Bank, in its Quarterly Economic Review March 2024, noted: “Information from the Ministry of Tourism showed that quarterly visitor arrivals grew by 14.9 percent to 3 million, surpassing the 2.6 million visitors a year earlier. Underpinning this development, sea traffic expanded by 16.6 percent to 2.5 million arrivals, exceeding the 2.1 million visitors in the comparable period of the previous year. Likewise, the high-value-added stopover segment rose by 5.9 percent to 0.5 million passengers, relative to 469,988 visitors in the prior year.”
An analysis by major ports of entry revealed that tourist arrivals to New Providence increased by 14.1 percent to 1.4 million, as sea traffic grew by 17 percent and air passengers, by 6.8 percent.
Similarly, arrivals to the Family Islands increased by 16.5 percent to 1.4 million, exceeding the 1.2 million passengers in 2023, on account of a 17.2 percent expansion in sea passengers and an 8.3 percent gain in air tourists. Further, visitors to Grand Bahama rose by 8.5 percent to 158,270, surpassing the 145,866 passengers posted in the comparable period last year, underpinned by a rise in sea arrivals by 8.2 percent and air traffic by 10.9 percent.
