Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investment and Aviation, the Hon. Chester Cooper made his contribution to the 2024-2025 budget debate in the House Of Assembly on Wednesday.

In his presentation, Cooper highlighted the record number of tourist arrivals in the country revealing that from January to April, 2024 almost four million tourist visited The Bahamas. “If these average holds, and we hope it does, a million a month will result in a 20% increase year over year or twelve million overall arrivals by year end,” he said.

Cooper also shared that tourism on the family islands is also doing very well. “Grand Bahama, Abaco and Eleuthera are also showing remarkable growth with increase of 6.8%, 3.8% and 3.0% respectively. Grand Bahama and Abaco continues to lead the way in the increase in arrivals by air with 7% and 15.5% respectively.”

The largest group of stopovers visitors in the country are Americans. The average stay for stopover visitors is 6.6 nights. Cooper said the average daily rate in hotel revenue in March 2024 was almost $600. He said, “this reflects both the high demand for quality accommodations and the premium that visitors are willing to pay for the unparalleled Bahamian experience.”

The tourism minister also revealed that the head count in the top two hotels in the country has grown by 36% from 8,600 in 2021 to 11,700 currently.

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