The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Travel agencies yesterday said COVID-19’s persistence is making them cautious about business prospects for the remainder of 2021 despite a recent pick-up in activity.

Michelle Swaby, travel director with Premier Travel, told Tribune Business that business was reviving as Bahamian students head back to school overseas - a typical tend in the summer months.

She said: “Bookings are picking up here and there because you have a lot of students going off to school, per se. As in reference to other travel, everybody is into this modern technology at your fingertips unless they find problems. Then they’re coming into the travel agency.”

Despite the seasonal rebound associated with back-to-school travel, Ms Swaby said the travel market remained depressed amid ongoing COVID uncertainty and restrictions. She said: “It’s kind of slow ever since COVID-19. It’s just been kind of slow. It’s not the same.”

Forecasting a lull in business once the back-to-school rush ends in late August, Ms Swaby said there would like be a pick-up again in the fall. “At the end of October, Bahamians are getting ready to go away for Thanksgiving and then Christmas, so it usually picks back up around there,” she added.

Andrea Pratt, general manager at Going Places, said she, too, has seen an uptick in bookings. She added: “I guess this is a combination of persons going back to school and I guess vacation and, now that the borders are being relaxed, persons who would have been here now want to go back home.”

Reluctant to make predictions for the remainder of 2021, Ms Pratt added that the company is “just playing it by ear, day by day. It’s not where you could predict in the future any more, so we just go day by day”.

“We are seeing probably only 45 percent of our 2019 numbers,” she added. “We just have to see what happens with the COVID-19 as that’s the only way we would be able to see how Thanksgiving would look, but so far so good. It has been a good pick up despite the pandemic.”