The Bahamas has been “losing stopover market share” to rival Caribbean destinations ever since the recession hit in 2008, its share of the region’s land-based tourists having fallen by more than one percentage point over a four-year period.
And Moody’s, the Wall Street credit rating agency, warned that the Bahamian hotel/tourism industry’s market share loss was “more pronounced” if Mexico and Central America were factored into the mix.
When ranked alongside other Caribbean nations only, Moody’s said Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) data showed that the Bahamas’ share of total stopover visitors to the Caribbean had fallen from 8.8 per cent in 2008 to 8.1 per cent in 2010, then slid further to just 7.6 per cent in 2011.
In contrast, the Dominican Republic saw its share of Caribbean stopovers rise from 23.9 per cent in 2008 to 24.5 per cent in 2011, while Cuba’s went from 14.1 per cent to 15.4 per cent. Jamaica and Puerto Rico, too, the other nations with a market share larger than the Bahamas, also saw their share of Caribbean stopovers increase over the same four-year period.
What this all suggests is that the Bahamas’ market positioning, as a high-end, high-cost destination, is working against it at a time when price-conscious travellers are constantly seeking cheap deals.
Moody’s said: “The erosion of the country’s competitive position explains why tourism revenues have yet to recover to 2007 levels. Average daily tourist revenues are down as hotels and airlines continue to offer deep discounts to attract consumers. Tourism earnings have been depressed also by shorter visits and lower spending per visitor.
“Recovery in tourism has been weak due to low growth in the US and greater regional competition. Total tourist arrivals have been increasing since 2009, but stopover visitors, which generate higher revenues than cruise visitors, are still 12 per cent below their 2007 peak.”
While the $2.6 billion Baha Mar project was set to increase the Bahamas’ total hotel room inventory by 10 per cent when completed in late 2014, Moody’s warned that “its overall economic impact remains ambiguous as additional capacity may cannibalise the market share of existing hotels”.
