Inbound tourism volume in the Bahamas 2010-2021, type

The Bahamas experienced an increase of around 17 percent in the volume of inbound tourism in 2021, according to data published by the UNWTO. In that year, less than 900 thousand overnight tourist arrivals and 1.2 million same-day visitor arrivals were registered in the North American archipelago.

Profile of visitors to the Bahamas

Most of the people who visited the Bahamas in 2021 traveled for leisure or personal purposes. Only 31 thousand tourist arrivals to this destination were motivated by business or professional reasons. International tourists primarily arrived from other American countries, mostly from the United States, which is partly explained by the proximity of this islands to the state of Florida.

Impact of tourism in the Bahamas

In 2021, there were more than five visitors per inhabitant in the Bahamas. However, this relation was around 20 to one in pre-pandemic years. Due to this great influx of visitors, the Caribbean country’s economy has become highly dependent on tourism. For instance, visitor spending accounted for approximately one-third of the Bahamas GDP, which translated into a major blow during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic when this share went down to only 10 percent. In addition to this, tourism also contributes significantly to the country's employment in the service sector, which makes up nearly 90 percent of the total employment.