NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Nassau/Paradise Island hotels are seeing very ‘robust’ transient and leisure business that is rivaling their pre-COVID-19 performance, hoteliers said yesterday.
Robert Sands, president of the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association (BHA) and Baha Mar’s senior vice president of governmental and external affairs, described business levels as “extremely encouraging” while addressing a BHTA Board of Directors and membership meeting yesterday.
“I can honestly say that business pace remains above 2019 and 2021 in a very positive way and 2023 is well ahead of booking pace,” Sands said.
“We have seen a significant impact as a result of our social media hits and also from events like The View and Entertainment Tonight where not only Baha Mar but the Bahamas has been highly profiled. This is having a significant impact on business going forward.”
He continued: “Our transient and leisure business remains, very strong, very robust, exceeding expectations and this is greatly impacted by our waterpark amenity which is doing very well. We are also seeing very positive group bookings for 2023 and 2024. Beyond a doubt business has been extremely encouraging. We have not seen any headwinds to date that would impede this upward momentum. We are very encouraged for the future.”
Jackson Weech, senior vice president at Atlantis noted that the resort was also seeing a good level of business.
Weech said: “Our booking pace continues to be very strong. We have seen exceedingly strong occupancies. Bookings remain strong. Group business looking at the balance of this year and 2023 is looking very strong as well. It’s a very positive picture.”
He noted that the resort has just completed renovations to the east tower of the Royal Towers to be followed by works on the west tower. A renovation of the bridge suite will also be undertaken with a completion date of mid-2023. Weech also noted that a rebranding of what was the Beach Tower with Groot Hospitality and Pharrell Williams for a lifestyle product is also being undertaken.
Vernice Wakine, the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) president and chief executive that the Lynden Pindling International Airport continues to see its level of traffic increase. She noted that May and June were strong months, with June’s traffic at about 79 percent of 2019 numbers.
Walkine also noted that while there have been some airline cancellations due to crew shortages at US-based airlines, they have been relatively few.
