The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday said that while monthly stopover tourist arrivals are steadily increasing their numbers are still less than 40 percent of pre-COVID-19 levels.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, speaking outside the Cabinet Office, said: “The good news is that the number of foreign visitor arrivals is increasing every month. So it’s heading in the right direction. The bad news is that it’s still 40 percent of what it used to be.”

He added that Bahamians needed to put tourism numbers, and the industry’s performance, “into perspective” given that this nation remains “nowhere near” its record-breaking 2019 due to much of the world remaining in the grip of the pandemic and associated travel/border restrictions.

Based on Ministry of Tourism stopover (air arrivals) visitor data for 2019, and the number of non-residents obtaining Health Visas to travel to The Bahamas, tourism numbers were down 62.2 percent for April 2021 compared to the same month in the last COVID-free year.

Some 171,167 air arrivals travelled to The Bahamas in 2019, as opposed to just 64,047 travel visas being issued to foreign visitors in April 2021. March air arrivals were down almost 70 percent compared to the same month in 2019, with 201,578 tourists comparing to 60,497 health visa purchases for this year.

Health visa purchases of 20,768 in January 2021, and 28,425 did in February, were down by 84 percent and 82 percent, respectively, against 2019 air arrivals comparatives. Nevertheless, the figures do indicate a slow but steadily improving trend as vaccines roll-out in The Bahamas’ major source markets, such as the US, and border restrictions are eased domestically and abroad.

Mr D’Aguilar said: “It’s going to take time, as persons get vaccinated and feel safe enough to travel, for them to think about a holiday. But I can tell you that the numbers are ever-increasing, and persons are obviously interested in a warmer destination and choosing The Bahamas in ever-increasing numbers. But it’s going to take some time for us to get back to where we used to be. The good news is that it’s heading in the right direction.”

Turning to potential issues posed by fake COVID-19 vaccination cards, he added: “This is an ongoing and very fluid situation. The difficulty is that certainly in the US, where over 90 percent of our foreign visitors originate, persons are getting vaccinated in many different areas, many different municipalities, many different states, and all of them have a mechanism by which to report that you have been vaccinated. So that obviously is creating some difficulty.

“We’re trying to work through that, and what would be the best solution. I guess the world is looking at this, everybody’s looking at this, and there’s been talk of a COVID passport and some sort of electronic means. We’re obviously grappling with this issue. But, for the time being, we think that the records that people are presenting genuine, and we’re just developing a mechanism on how best to validate them.”