The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Vacation rental room bookings increased 152 percent year-over-year during the 2021 second quarter as the Bahamian economy continued to recover from the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Central Bank, unveiling its quarterly review for the three months to end-June, said: “Positive trends were also observed in the private vacation rental market, as demand picked up and local hotel resorts resumed operations with the enforcement of COVID-19 protocols.

“Data from AirDNA showed that during the second quarter, total room nights booked rebounded to 327,716, following a 65.1 percent reduction to 130,075 in the same period last year. Contributing to this outturn, hotel comparable bookings and entire place listings recorded notable gains in the review quarter, which increased more than three-fold.

“An analysis by rental category revealed that average occupancy levels for entire place listings rose to 55.2 percent from 30.7 percent, while, the average daily rate (ADR) strengthened by 16.8 percent to $490.86. Similarly, hotel comparable listings registered a 52.8 percent rise to its average occupancy rates, as the ADR increased by 13.7 percent to $176.02.”

While the year-over-year gains in the Central Bank’s report appeared impressive, all tourism and government revenue categories were up against extraordinarily weak comparisons from 2020 as that year’s second quarter contained the bulk of COVID-19 related lockdowns and other restrictive measures.

As a result, more meaningful comparisons would be from 2018-2019, as these would show just how much ground the Bahamian economy has to cover to reach pre-pandemic levels. “During the second quarter, tourism sector output registered a slow recovery,” the Central Bank noted.

“Data provided by the Ministry of Tourism revealed that total visitor arrivals strengthened to 297,759, following a 99.8 percent reduction to just 3,998 a year earlier when international border closures were fully implemented. Specifically, the high value-added air component amounted to 254,662 from only 1,736 passengers in the prior year - 58.5 percent of the 2019 second quarter level.

“Similarly, sea passengers recovered to 43,097 from 2,262 in the preceding year. A disaggregation by major ports of entry, showed that tourist arrivals to New Providence rebounded to 180,240 from just 1,095 last year, as air and sea passengers totalled 176,378 and 3,862, respectively.

“Likewise, visitors to the Family Islands moved higher to 103,304 from 2,359 in the prior year, with respective air and sea arrivals amounting to 72,494 and 30,810.”

Turning to the Government’s revenue performance, the Central Bank said: “Preliminary data on the Government’s budgetary operations for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020-2021 showed that the overall deficit narrowed by $84.5m (15.3 percent) to $469.2m, in comparison to the same period of fiscal year 2019-2020.

“Contributing to this outturn, was a notable rebound in aggregate revenue, led by a growth in VAT receipts as the economy slowly stabilises from COVID-19 related disruption in economic activities. Specifically, total revenue rose by $314.8m (96 percent) to $642.7m, which outweighed the $230.3m (26.1 percent) expansion in aggregate expenditure to $1.112bn.

“Tax receipts, which comprised 88.5 percent of total revenue, grew by $263.4m (86.1 percent) to $569.1m. VAT collections, at a dominant 42.3 percent of total receipts, were restored by $131m (93 percent ) to $271.8m.”