No ‘Far-Off Dream’: On Target For 1 million Tourists

• The Bahamas is on target to realise its “far-off dream” of one million stopover visitors in 2021, a top official disclosed yesterday, while hotel rates and tourist spending inch closer to pre-COVID levels. 
• Joy Jibrilu, the Ministry of Tourism’s director-general, told the weekly media briefing by the Prime Minister’s Office that “the quality of the numbers” that The Bahamas is enjoying in its pandemic recovery is more important than just mere visitor arrivals. 
• Confirming that The Bahamas is on track to hit the one million stopover visitor target set by former tourism minister, Dionisio D’Aguilar, when he spoke to Tribune Business in early July, she said: “Internally, we’re floating a number. When we floated that number in September, that seemed like a far-off dream. But it’s more than that at this stage.” 
• Jibrilu said hotel and tourism industry margins, and yields had increased instead of dropping as had initially been predicted. And increased tourism spending meant that the economic impact from The Bahamas’ largest sector is being felt more widely, and by more persons.

 

(Source: The Tribune)