Despite a drastic decline in visitors following the events of Sept. 11, total visitor counts have exceeded last year’s, according to tourism officials.
However, it was noted, sea arrivals accounted for the increase, while the number of air visitors, who spend more, remain below 2001 levels.
During his keynote address at the 47th Annual Convention of the Progressive Liberal Party on Wednesday night, Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe said
He attributed the increase to an additional 205,000 sea arrivals, a nine percent increase.
These visitors spent over $150 million, he said.
Air arrivals have also increased substantially, with Nassau and Paradise Island receiving a 16.2 percent increase, which includes some 8,000 new visitors in the month of October alone, he said.
Air arrivals in Grand Bahama “out performed” every island of The Bahamas this year, said the tourism Minister, with some 262,000 visitors arriving by air.
Grand Bahama had a 3.5 percent increase in air arrivals compared to a 6 percent decrease for New Providence and a 10.6 percent decline for the Family Islands, he said.
Overall, Grand Bahama had an increase of 49 per cent in tourist arrivals, Mr Wichcombe said.
Family Island tourism arrivals grew by 40.5 percent to the end of October, Mr. Wilchcombe said, noting that in October 2002, the islands welcomed an 11.7 percent increase compared to October 2001.
This, he said, can be attributed to the cruise visitors.
He said that some 15,000 more visitors came to The Bahamas this year, which represents a 22 per cent increase in arrivals compared to 2001.
“This is great news for our country. It means that we are on the rebound,” Minister Wilchcombe said.
“Grand Bahama is up, and New Providence and the Family Islands are down at the moment, but I’ll tell you in a moment how we’re correcting that,” he said.
Air arrivals for the first 17 days in November show an 8.4 percent increase over last year, with air arrivals and sea stopovers for Grand Bahama experiencing 28.6 per cent more visitors for the same period last year.
The year 2002 is foreshadowed to have between 4.3 and 4.4 million visitors by the end of the year, Mr. Wilchcombe said.
“Going into 2003, we still have a lot of work to do as air arrivals, our greatest revenue source will end 2002 below 2001 levels. However, I firmly believe with a resolute resolve, demonstrated with the focus and our new niche markets, and a new promotional strategy, a good accountability in government expenditure, we will see a realistic growth of between 3 to 5 percent in tourism arrivals next year,” he said.
“We are expecting one of the best years ever in tourism next year,” he said.
By Vanessa Rolle, The Nassau Guardian
