Grand Bahama recorded a significant growth in cruise arrivals in the month of April, the last month for which figures have been released, while the rest of The Bahamas recorded a decline, according to industry information from the Ministry of Tourism.
Tourism officials say cruise arrivals were up in Grand Bahama in April.
Just over 33,000 visitors opted to take a cruise to Grand Bahama in that month, almost doubling the 19,152 sea arrivals of the previous year. It reflected a 74 percent increase.
“Cruise arrivals to Grand Bahama were up significantly by the first port of entry for the month of April 2006 primarily because Carnival Cruise lines continued the trend of calling more on Grand Bahama as a first port of call, than they had in the past,” according to a Ministry of Tourism analysis.
“Other cruise lines also contributed to this growth: Celebrity Cruise lines, Costa Cruises and Party Line Cruises also brought in more passengers in April 2006 than in the same period of 2005.”
The first port of entry refers to the first port of call in The Bahamas for a cruise ship, since some ships make more than one stop.
The year to date figures showed that 167,499 tourists sailed to Grand Bahama for the first four months of the year which was a 24 percent hike over the 134,412 recorded in the same period last year.
The figures were seen as an encouraging sign considering the adversities that the island is struggling to overcome; a third of the Grand Bahamaﾒs room inventory is offline because of storm damage, casino operator Isle of Capri is pulling its investment less than a year from now and employment prospects on the island are dismal.
Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe suggested recently growing the islandﾒs tourism base of transient and non-transient visitors by two fold within the next five years, reaching the 1.2 million mark is essential.
Also, the Ministry of Tourism is exploring incentives to relocate the passenger cruise terminal facility on the island which according to projections should in the first year more than double cruise arrivals, Minister Wilchcombe said.
In addition to the 24 percent increase in sea arrivals to Grand Bahama, there was a 5.2 percent hike in tourists who flew there in the month of April, according to figures which showed 22,604 made the trip. Year to date statistics recorded 78,332 air arrivals over the 78,787 recorded for the first four months of 2005.
But the trend was not the same for the rest of The Bahamas where cruise arrivals to Nassau/Paradise Island and the Out Islands were down for April.
In the case of New Providence, where thousands of cruise visitors continue to disembark at Nassau Harbour, the figure amounted to 182,615, less than April 2005. Tourism analysts explained that those arrivals were down because many of the major cruise lines brought in fewer passengers, despite Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Lines bringing in more passengers than they did the year before.
A similar trend held true for the rest of the country where sea tourists reached just under 111,000 in total. Cruise arrivals to the Family Islands by the first port of entry were down despite the fact that some of the major cruise lines like Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruises called on them first. Other major cruise lines like Disney Cruises, Holland American and Princess Cruises all brought in fewer passengers by first port than they had in the same period of 2005.
Between January and April 2006, The Bahamas still appears to be inching behind the visitor arrival figures that were recorded for the same period in 2005, the figures show. Between January and April 2006, there were 1,782,602 air and sea arrivals to the country, 3.3 percent less than the 1,842,641 recorded in the first four months of 2005.
For the month of April alone, there were 496,894 arrivals which was slightly more than the 495,859 who came to The Bahamas last April.
There was an increase in air arrivals to Nassau/Paradise Island, Grand Bahama, Abaco, Bimini, Cat Cay, Cat Island, Eleuthera, Exuma and Inagua and San San Salvador. Bimini (34%), Cat Island (29%), Eleuthera (28%) and San Salvador (34%) recorded the largest increase margins.
Ministry of Tourism statistics showed that just under 800,000 tourists who arrived by air and sea were lured to The Bahamas between January and February of this year.
There were 790,069 visitors up to February, a few thousand more than the 833,760 who made it here in the same period in 2005. It represented a 5.2 percent decline.
More than half of the arrivals came in to New Providence, the figures show, with 174,024 of them traveling to the island by air and 310,583 arriving by sea.
Grand Bahama recorded a total of 104,407 air and sea arrivals for the first two months of the year. There were 51,568 arrivals in January and 52,839 in February.
For the rest of the Family Islands, there was a 11 percent drop in visitor figures for January and February. Statistics revealed that arrivals outside of New Providence and Grand Bahama amounted to 201,055 less than the 225,378 recorded for January and February of 2005.
By: Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
