The Family Islands saw a strong 8 per cent increase in total visitor arrivals during July, with cruise ship private island visits possibly causing the downturn in sea arrivals to New Providence and Grand Bahama.
According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism, air and sea arrivals to Nasaau/Paradise Island and Grand Bahama were down by 17 per cent and 19 per cent respectively in July.
Despite Grand Bahama’s negative figures for July, the island saw an increase of 6 per cent in arrivals during the first seven months of 2006. However, overall the entire Bahamas saw a 3 per cent decrease in total arrivals for the first seven months in 2006. Nassau/Paradise Island saw a decrease of 5 per cent in total arrivals to July, while the Family Islands experienced a drop of 3 per cent.
Looking at air arrivals, Long Island, which has seen a tremendous economic fallout due to the problems surrounding the Stella Maris Airport, continued to suffer with a decrease of 80 per cent.
Cat Island was the only island to post an increase in air arrivals during July, with all the other islands seeing decreases of between 4 and 19 per cent. Bimini saw a decrease of 18 per cent.
As far as cruise arrivals went, arrivals to the Family Islands were up by 24 per cent for June for first port of entry whereas, arrivals to Nassau/Paradise Island were down by 22 per cent and 24 per cent to Grand Bahama.
This caused a 10 per cent decrease for the Bahamas overall.
The year-to-July figures indicate that cruise arrivals to Grand Bahama were up 22 per cent, while Nassau/Paradise Island saw a decrease of 10 per cent, the Family Islands were down 3 per cent, and cruise arrivals to the Bahamas overall were down by 5 per cent.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, the sea arrivals were down in July because the major cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, International, Imperial Majesty Cruise, Princes Cruises and Disney Cruises, all brought in fewer passengers and gave similar reasons for the upturn which were experienced.
By CARA BRENNEN Tribune Business Reporter
