More than 11 million tourists visited The Bahamas in 2024.  Tourism numbers increased both in Abaco at 11.9% and Grand Bahama at 8.7%.  This information was revealed at a press event held on Wednesday by tourism officials.

According to Minister of Tourism, Investment and Aviation, the Hon. Chester Cooper 2024 was the best year ever for tourism.  He said, “this is truly a remarkable rebound.  The above results are posting notwithstanding the interruptions of Hurricanes Milton, Oscar and the USA elections.  We point out further that the limited capacity in room inventory further dampens the trajectory of growth in air arrivals.”

Director of the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC), Dwight Gibson spoke of some of the initiatives to address the room inventory shortage.  “Our Home Sweet Home Initiative launched with a $1.2 million investment to increase room inventory and create entrepreneurial opportunities.  Thus far we have awarded $600,000 in grants in phase one alone and as mentioned we launched phase two of the program continuing our efforts to provide economic opportunities for all Bahamians.”

Also present at the press event was Director General of Tourism, Latia Duncombe who spoke to future plans for tourism.  She said, “as The Bahamas builds on a record breaking year in tourism we are strategically focused on maintaining our momentum in 2025, increasing stop over arrivals, expanding airlift and ensuring that more Bahamians benefit directly from tourism.”

December 2024 was recorded as the best ever with 1.15 million visitors which is a 14% increase over 2023.  There was also $654 million in cruise spending and 1.72 million visitors arrived by air.