The Bahamas is seemingly about to make tourism history as the Ministry of Tourism Investments
and Aviation has announced plans to host a special 2023 record breaking visitor arrival press
conference and brunch on December 4 at Margaritaville Beach Resort.
Just half-way through the year in June, Tourism Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chester
Cooper urged Bahamian investors to open their homes to help meet tourism demands, citing
room capacity as a challenge due to high hotel occupancy rates.
At the end of October, the Ministry of Tourism revealed that total visitor arrivals for the first nine
months of 2023 equaled pre-COVID’s 2019 full-year record of 7.2 million, with hotel room rates
almost 60 percent higher.
At that time Minister Cooper said The Bahamas’ post-pandemic tourism rebound was “no
fluke” and that it was “now certain” that The Bahamas would hit its record eight million total
visitor target for 2023.
A statement from the ministry said The Bahamas is “squarely on target” to achieve this goal
after total air and sea arrivals for the nine months to end-September 2023 hit 7.209 million. Of
that number, 1.333 million came by air and 5.876 million by sea, with total arrivals outpacing
2019 figures by 33 percent.
During the end of October Cruise arrivals from the first nine months of 2023 are up 61 percent
year-over-year, and 45 percent ahead of 2019, according to the Ministry of Tourism.
Foreign air arrivals, which include stopovers and day visitors, are up 21 percent over the same
period in 2022 through September 2023, but remain just below comparatives for the pre-
COVID record year of 2019.

Hotel occupancy was also said to be ahead of 2019, with average daily room rates and room
revenue significantly ahead of that year. The Ministry of Tourism added that The Bahamas
continues to see gains in the overall visitor spending.
No doubt playing a major role in the record number of arrivals was the Ministry of Tourism’s
global marketing strategy that targeted new areas in an effort to attract travelers to The
Bahamas with a focus on Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Australia in
addition to major markets like the U.S. and Canada.
The number of tourist arrivals to the various Family Islands also increased with steady growth
of approximately 11 percent for Cat Island and Exuma. The Berry Islands are up 36.4 percent,
while Eleuthera and Abaco are ahead 44 percent and 38 percent, respectively. Grand Bahama
is up 64 percent, leading growth in air arrivals with an increase of 43.6 percent, and Bimini up
by a staggering 138 percent. And there is still the month of December to go.