Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation, the Hon. Chester Cooper expects the final number of tourist that visited The Bahamas in 2023 to exceed 9 million.
He said, “we recently celebrated our 8 millionth arrival that was as at the end of October. At the end of 2023 we expect that that number will be significantly higher. We want to wait until the final numbers are in but it will be well in excess of 9 million. We very happy about this.”
Cooper also spoke about his ministry’s goal of converting cruise passengers to stop over visitors. ”We’re going to be doing some exciting things through the Tourism Development Corporation. We’ll be working actively with product development. Our work in revitalizing Bay Street, which is the heart and soul of much of our tourism product, will continue. We’ve started great work in terms of the demolitions, in terms of creating new product, in terms of bringing Goombay back to Bay Street as well as the festivals.”
The Minister says the economic impact of the tourism numbers is significant. ”We are in the hospitality business and therefore as a result of this business everyone is in the tourism business, as we say tourism is everybody’s business. So the taxi drivers, the vendors, the hair braiders, the restaurant owners and workers, the hotel owners, operators and workers, the tour guides, everyone has benefitted significantly as a result of these tourism arrivals.”
Cooper along with Tourism officials and stakeholders celebrated the record tourism at an event held at the Margaritaville Hotel in December.
