The Bahamas recorded, for the second time in history, in excess of five million visitor arrivals during 2005 in spite of multiple hurricanes which adversely affected several family islands, the Ministry of Tourism said in a press statement.
The number of visitor arrivals is reflected in visitor arrival statistics provided by the Immigration Department which also reveal that foreign air arrivals were up for eight islands, inclusive of New Providence, compared with last year.
Foreign air arrivals to The Islands of The Bahamas in January 2005 started off the year down while sea arrivals were up, it was reported.
The Islands of the Bahamas were still under the effects of the two hurricanes, Frances and Jeanne that had meandered through the islands in August and September of 2004.
The Ministry said air arrivals were up for New Providence, Andros, Berry Islands, Cat Cay, Cat Island, Eleuthera, Exuma, and Inagua. But air arrivals were down for Grand Bahama, Abaco, Bimini, Long Island and San Salvador. Some of these islands had been badly affected by the hurricanes of 2004.
Air arrivals to New Providence were up for most of 2005 except for the month of April (spring-break). By the end of December 2005, New Providence was able to finish off the year on a positive note.
Air Arrivals to Grand Bahama, one of the islands hardest hit by the two hurricanes of 2004, were down from January to August 2005. By September 2005, air arrivals to Grand Bahama began to climb and continued this momentum into December 2005 despite Hurricane Wilma, which buffeted the island in October 2005, the Ministry said.
The statement also said that the gain in momentum was not enough to counteract the air arrival deficits that had been experienced in the earlier part of the year and Grand Bahama finished off the year down for arrivals by air and sea by 11 percent.
The Out Islands were able to end the year on a positive note despite the fact that some of the islands suffered losses either in air or sea arrivals or both, the Ministry reported.
It said that both air and sea arrivals were up for 2005 for the Out Islands overall. Despite the fact that air arrivals to Abaco were down for 2005 the island was still able to come out on top of the previous year because they received more sea landed (i.e., boaters, etc.) and cruise passengers than they had in 2004.
Air, sea landed and cruise arrivals were up for 2005 compared to the same period of 2004 for the Berry Islands; so they were able to end the year on a positive note. Air and sea arrivals to Bimini were up by the end of 2005, so Bimini was able to end the year positively.
The Ministry also said that both Cat Cay and Cat Island had more air and sea arrivals than they had in 2004.
Air, sea landed and cruise arrivals were up for 2005 compared to the same period of 2004 for Eleuthera; so Eleuthera ended the year positively. Air arrivals to Exuma were up for most of the year except the months of August, October and November 2005.
In addition to this, Exuma also received more sea landed visitors in 2005 compared to 2004, so Exuma finished the year on a positive note. Despite a rocky start to 2005 for San Salvador (one of the islands hard hit by Hurricane Frances in September 2004), the island was able to rebound in September 2005 and continue its momentum into December 2005; so San Salvador was able to end the year with air and sea arrivals up, according to the Ministry of Tourism.
It also reported that Andros received fewer arrivals in 2005 because air arrivals were down for six months of the year, i.e., May, June, August, October, November and December and the other six months that they were up were not enough to counter balance the other months.
“By the end of December 2005, and despite the adversities faced in the previous year with hurricanes Frances and Jeanne that had severe impacts on some of the islands, it was clear that The Islands of The Bahamas would once again come out on top,” the statement said. “For the second time in history the Bahamas would reach over 5 million visitors.”
The Bahama Journal
