NASSAU, The Bahamas--The Bahamas exceeded a record-breaking seven million visitors in 2019, despite the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Dorian last September.
According to the Department of Immigration, Port Authority and Customs, last year was a record-breaking one, with the highest number of arrivals by air and sea recorded in the country’s history. By the end of 2019, foreign air and sea arrivals had totalled more than 7.2 million, a nine per cent increase from 2018. Stopover visitors alone were the highest in recorded history at 1.78 million, with American visitors accounting for 1.45 million.
Minister of Tourism and Aviation, Dionisio D’Aguilar attributed the historic success to data-driven, agile marketing, authentic storytelling and aggressive PR, sales and airlift strategies.
“We look forward to building upon the success of our marketing efforts and continuing the momentum in 2020 as we show the world that the Bahamas continues to be open for business and has so much to offer visitors,” he said.
The ministry’s Director General Joy Jibrilu added that the achievement would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the team behind the scenes at the ministry as well as industry and agency partners.
Since 2009, the Bahamas has seen a steady increase in air and sea arrivals with a 52 per cent increase in just 10 years.
Tourism officials say the Bahamas expects to see the trend of increasing arrivals by air continue as major airlines, including United Airlines, British Airways and Delta Airlines, have increased their airlift to Nassau in 2020.
United Airlines has added Saturday-only non-stop service from Denver, Colorado, to Nassau. The service begins March 7, in time for the peak spring travel season and continues through August 15.
Beginning March 29, British Airways will operate non-stop service between London Heathrow and Nassau every Tuesday. British Airways will now offer non-stop service between London and Nassau Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Delta Airlines has also expanded its airlift to Nassau this winter. From December 21, 2019, the airline introduced daily nonstop flights from Boston Logan Airport to Nassau’s Lynden Pindling International Airport. Flights will run through April 30. ~ Caribbean360 ~
