2012 Third Quarter Visitor Arrivals Fall 2.7%
Total visitors to Bermuda during the third quarter of 2012 fell 2.7% compared to the same quarter in 2011, according to statistics released today [Dec 31] by the Department of Tourism.
A total of 260,129 visitors came to Bermuda during the third quarter of 2012. This was comprised of 80,852 air visitors, 179,124 cruise visitors and 153 visitors arriving by yacht.
While all other modes of arrival to the island were down, air arrivals were up by over 1%, despite of the threat of Hurricane Leslie in the month of September, which resulted in several cancelled flights. The air arrivals total of 80,852 was up from 79,917 visitors during the same period in 2011.
The majority of visitors [77%] continue to originate from the United States, with the balance coming from Canada [9.4%], UK [8.9%], Europe [2.8%] and the Rest of the World [2.5%].
A loss of over 8,000 cruise visitors was experienced in the third quarter of 2012, with 179,124 cruisers sailing to Bermuda during this time, a decrease of almost 4%. The decline was the result of six less cruise ship calls for the quarter. Most of these reduced calls occurred in the month of September, as there were five less cruise calls, resulting in cruise arrivals to be down 11% for that month.
The full report is below [PDF here]:
Crockywell , hope you do a better job than DREB . This is not on you …BUT the next time .
So after 14 years of decline you expect an immediate turnaround?
The decline has been longer than 14 years. PLP had the opportunity to do things right, but they blew it cuz they wanted control over tourism policy. In other words, the decline is due to Tourism never being managed properly as a business. The OBA has promised a Tourism Authority to ensure that the correct business decisions are made and followed through on. This is where Crockwell needs to get it right.
Now some actual numbers…..maybe now people will know what doo doo we are in!!! Thank God we have some people that live in the real world that might be able to get us out of this hole that we are in! Don’t want this beautiful island to sink anymore!
IMO for th last 20 year all numbers have been misleading or spun all I know we have hi rock bottom and we are going up ….JUST DO IT !
Remember 10% of nothing is nothing ..are numbers are nothing.
Did anyone really believe Wayne Furbert’s claims? Taxis drivers, hoteliers and restaurants knew the reality.
The challenge for the OBA is to set about a non-political Tourism Authority led by competent professionals. Let’s hope they choose proven professionals and not political yes men like Billy Griffith who is nothing but a failed hotel manager. Perhaps we will get tax payers money spent on redeveloping Bermuda’s brand image and not utter wastes of money like Music Festivals costing millions and were in reality party opportunities for King Brown and the PLP elite.
Don’t forget the “Love Festival”!!
A good stat to also disclose would be the number of people coming to visit friends or relatives who work on the island. In this way we could see, and hopefully appreciate, how much the expat community generates a follow-on tourism industry/economic benefit. I think it would be a significant proportion of the above air arrivals.
Have you looked at the report shown above in full? Page 13 gives the breakout. Also page 14 shows stays in private homes exceeds stays in small hotels. Take out visiting friends and family and business visitors who come here without any advertising and the $30 million spent each year is mostly wasted.
So much for all the money spent in travels taking Dr Brown to India, China, Brazil and all the other places where he needed to forge close links. Unlikely to have been for tourism but more likely, and allegedly, for when he retired as Premier. As has been said for so long, concentrate on the core market of the Northeast USA and Canada.
My friends from the U.S. and Canada say that it’s to expensive.
Typical trip for them.
[1] Airline ticket ——— $ 340 [ave] — per person
[2] Hotel ——————- $ 1500 – 5 night deal
[3] food ——————— $ 300 – i always make Codfish & Potato breakfast for them so they save here
[4] Taxi /Bus————— $ 70 —it’s a good thing that I take them about — if I’m off from work!
[5] Shopping————— $ 220
[6] other ——————– $ 50
———————
total two people $ 2,850
A lot of money
we have to find some way to get the prices down.
No problem getting the prices down. Who is going to be first to take a cut in pay?
So much for so much more.
my wife and i have been coming to bermuda to visit our son for the last 7 years. my son is on a permit working in bermuda.
we come to visit him from canada. we have always flew down on air canada sometimes twice a year and stayed at the best hotels on the island untill our sons permit was not renewed by imigration. he was doing a job that very very few if any bermudian did.
point is our last trip to bermuda 5 months ago it cost us 6500.00 for the 10 day trip.
doing this for 7 years, is alot of money plus the other people we have sent to bermuda. now we will not be back anymore. my son has gone to another island now and my wife and i can visit him their for less then half the price and there is so much more to do then in bermuda. we love bermuda but found not much to do after our 1st visit.
so now all this money goes else where. sorry
Sorry to hear you won’t be back but you need to remember its not just Bermuda, one of my kids went to a university in Nova Scotia for 4 years, $3,500 a month for rent, phone, food, books, TV ran me around $5k a month not including overpriced Air Canada flights, not including hotels, and not including tuition, which on its own was pretty good, that really is Bermuda pricing in Canada, and have you stayed in Toronto recently?
Things can only go up for us.