The Bahamas is reporting its highest visitor arrival numbers since reopening its borders.

The latest numbers, which cover the month of June and July showed that there were 135,092 visitors to the Caribbean archipelago during the month of June, according to the Central Bank of the Bahamas’ (CBOB) economic report for July.

The Monthly Economic and Financial Developments report showed that air arrivals topped out at 113,189 in June and sea traffic expanded to 21,903, the highest numbers recorded since the complete reopening of borders and the restart of the tourism sector in November 2020.

This momentum continued for the month of July with 114,548 departures from Lynden Pindling International Airport. “Underlying this development, US departures recovered to 109,454 from 8,145 a year earlier. In addition, non-US departures totalled 5,094 exceeding 788 in the prior year,” the report said.

Breakdown in visitor numbers

A breakdown by major market revealed that total visitors to New Providence advanced to 83,314 from a mere 1,032 in the comparative period of the prior year. Underlying this outcome, the air and sea segments measured 81,931 and 1,383, respectively.

The Central Bank noted, “Likewise, foreign arrivals to Grand Bahama rose to 7,235, surpassing the 544 visitors recorded in 2020, as sea and air arrivals amounted to respective 4,811 and 2,424. In addition, total traffic to the Family Islands rebounded to 44,543 vis-à-vis 2,359 in the same period of the preceding year, as air and sea passengers recovered to 28,834 and 15,709, respectively.”

The Bahamas has seen steady growth in the tourism sector month over month since it reopened in November 2020 after a nearly eight-month border closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tourism officials have said while they expect the robust return to tourism to taper off in the coming months, as the summer season ends, the highly valued meeting, incentives, conferences and events market (MICE) has shown signs of a strong return this fall and winter season.

On a year-to-date basis, the decrease in outward bound traffic moderated to just two per cent from 63.7 per cent last year. US departures grew by 12.1 per cent, contrasting with the 64.8 per cent falloff in 2020. Conversely, “non-US departures declined by 74.7 per cent, extending the 56.3 per cent reduction in the comparative period in 2020, ” Monthly Economic and Financial Developments report stated.