Although higher occupancy levels were recorded at the larger hotel properties in New Providence, there was a broad-based falloff in visitor arrivals to The Bahamas in the first half of 2005, according to data collected by the Central Bank of The Bahamas.
The Bank’s latest Monthly Economic and Financial Developments report for July indicated that tourism output in terms of total room revenue increased by 8.1 percent to $219.5 million, while room rates and revenue per available room rose by 7 percent and 14.3 percent respectively.
Occupancy rates were broadly higher at 83.4 percent compared to the same period last year when the figure stood at 78.1 percent, the report noted.
The improvements in occupancy rates, average daily room rates and room revenues at major properties on the island boosted tourism output and helped to offset weaker overall arrivals.
Total visitor arrivals to The Bahamas declined by 5.6 percent to 2,614,931, with sea arrivals lower by 7 percent and air arrivals off by 2.5 percent.
“The decline in arrivals was led by Grand Bahama where the weakness was most pronounced, with total arrivals falling off by 23.6 percent, including a 16.7 percent reduction in sea arrivals and a more than one-third contraction in air arrivals,” the report, released this week, said.
Conversely, air arrivals to New Providence and the Family Islands rose by 7.2 percent and .4 percent respectively.
In the face of this latest evaluation, Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe said he remained confident of a turnaround for Grand Bahama.
In fact, he said tourism officials were scheduled to meet in Grand Bahama extensively next week to discuss the situation.
“Grand Bahama with its limited rooms today has been able to sustain itself,” Minister Wilchcombe said. “You have in Grand Bahama the movie production, so for the next several months you are going to see most of the hotels that are open fully occupied.
“We only have 2,400 [rooms] open. We are missing some 1,300 because of Royal Oasis, but we are also working on a number of new hotels and very soon you are going to hear more about that. In addition to that we are working on even more cruise arrivals to Grand Bahama which we have found to be a wonderful staple for the tourism industry in the Grand Bahama area.”
The Our Lucaya Resort remains the anchor property on the island since the closure of the Royal Oasis Resort last September, which was battered in Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne.
Government officials are continuing their talks with potential buyers as various individuals continue to complain about the dire straits that the island is in.
This week, the hotel union said it might have to shut down the International Bazaar, a shopping Mecca on the island, because of the low business levels and the falloff in visitor arrivals to the island.
There has been a fair amount of commentary about the tourism sector in recent days, with the president of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union Pat Bain also claiming that several of the dominant hotels on the island have placed workers on reduced workweeks.
He urged tourism officials to concentrate on stopover visitors as a means of boosting declining levels.
Minister Wilchcombe said that in the coming week there will be an official announcement about new hotel properties in Grand Bahama.
“Just like New Providence, Grand Bahama has significant airlift. Bookings have not been what we want and that is because we have not been able to accommodate the visitors and we have limited offerings at this particular time,” he said.
Central Bank analysts are projecting that stable economic growth prospects in the U.S., alongside rising household incomes should support the tourism sector. But they warned that the key vulnerabilities remain the persistent record high energy prices, which are likely to impact travel costs and concerns surrounding the 2005 very active hurricane season.
By: Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
