A report released by US company PKF Hospitality Research, a unit of PKF Consulting, revealed that Caribbean hotels received a shot in the arm last year due to a tourism surge and a strong American economy.
Earl Bethel, President of The Bahamas Hotel Association, told The Guardian that the overall picture here remains competitive.
He said the 2006 statistics for hotel performance already outranked last year's up to June. "We get monthly reports on what is going on with hotels in the country and it's showing that we are doing better than last year, especially with occupancy and average rates," Mr Bethel said.
He added that The Bahamas, alongside Mexico and Jamaica, outranked most of the popular tourist destinations in the region. In the PKF report, the region averaged $111,414 per available room and that boosted profit margins by 22.9 per cent.
The survey also revealed that the food and beverage sectors were main revenue earners across the region. But in The Bahamas, room revenues headed the earnings balance sheet for hotels.
High cost of imports, however, was one of the major challenges that hotels in the region faced, the report pointed out.
"We [The Bahamas] import everything, mostly because you have to get the quality of product on a consistent basis. We're not at that point yet in terms of the items we need," Mr Bethel said.
According to statistics from the US Census Bureau For-eign Trade Division Data Dimension Branch, we spent more than $1.4 billion in exports from the US last year.
Mr Bethel said: "In comparison with our Caribbean counterparts, you find that our labour costs are higher."
Scott Smith, an affiliate with Atlanta-based PKF Consulting that produced the resort report, pointed out that airline performance also impacted the hotel sector in the Caribbean.
"The region has benefited from an increasingly competitive airline market, as well as increased airlift to and from both traditional and emerging destinations," he said.
By: BARRY WILLIAMS, The Nassau Guardian
