2018 Tourism Satellite Account Report Released
Today [Dec 12] the Minister for the Cabinet Office Wayne Furbert released the 2018 Tourism Satellite Account report from the Department of Statistics.
The Minister said, “I was particularly encouraged to note from the report that direct employment in the tourism industry had increased to 3,204 jobs in 2018, up from 2,996 in 2017 and 2,607 in 2016. Additionally, the sector paid out $279 million in wages during 2018 – up almost 5 per cent from 2017.
“This employment was spread across various industries including accommodation services, restaurants, transport, recreation services and retail trade. Compared to other industries, the tourism industry was the fourth largest employer in Bermuda in 2018. For employment of Bermudians specifically, the tourism industry ranked third behind retail trade and public administration.”
Minister of Tourism and Transport Zane DeSilva said, “Bermuda’s tourism industry continues to grow with visitors spending $544 million purchasing tourism products, an increase of 16.1 per cent over 2017. The higher level of spending was directly attributable to a rise in cruise passenger arrivals and stay-over visitors as well as an increase in average per-person expenditure by both.
“Employment growth in the tourism sector is also great news, and with the opening of new hotels in 2020, these numbers are expected to increase even further and provide more Bermudians the opportunity to secure employment and build successful and fulfilling careers.”
Other highlights from the 2018 Tourism Satellite Account report include:
- Tourism contributed $166 million or 16 per cent of the total government revenue for 2018.
- Visitors spent $544 million purchasing tourism products, an increase of $75 million over 2017.
- Residents spent an estimated $332 million on foreign travel in 2018, a decrease of $30 million from 2017.
Minister Furbert added, “The Tourism Satellite Report highlights the direct, indirect and induced effects of the tourism industry on output, employment and wages in Bermuda. In 2018, the direct contribution of the tourism industry’s Gross Value Added [GVA] to the Bermuda economy was $386 million, representing 5.3 per cent of GDP in current prices – up 12.5 per cent from 2017.
“The public is advised to read the concepts and definitions on the last page of the report prior to reviewing the data.”
The 2018 Tourism Satellite Account Report follows below [PDF here]:
and exactly what did the PLP do to encourage tourism?
This:
3,204 jobs in 2018, up from 2,996 in 2017 and 2,607 in 2016. (How many OBA years?)
and this:
“Employment growth in the tourism sector is also great news, and with the opening of new hotels in 2020, these numbers are expected to increase even further and provide more Bermudians the opportunity to secure employment and build successful and fulfilling careers.
New hotels … like St Regis .. thanks OBA …..
Job growth in tourism thanks to the BTA.
The rest in Civil Service thanks to PLP.
I sometimes think that the PLP forgets it came to power half way thru 2017
Reader’s need to understand that this Report includes both visitors and residents travel under Tourism Satellite Account, if not the Report becomes more confusing. Obviously BTA and Department of Statistics use different factors to arrive at ‘Visitor Spending; the Report quotes 2018 visitor spending at $544M while BTA quotes ‘estimated’ total visitor spending at $505M which includes ‘passenger tax revenue’. With the differences in BTA and Department of Statistics methods used to arrive at the economic effect visitor spending has on the Gross Added Value of the tourism sector to the Bermuda economy; how accurate is the GVA? A good percentage of the GVA figures appear to come from ‘estimates’; does the Government factor the ‘estimates’?
What’s scary is how little tourism contributes to govt revenue
It should be way more but we have no vision for tourism and alignment of hotel product … we are two hours from cold Canada yet we have no Canadian tourists, how is that success?
I cannot find the part where is says that the 208 new jobs “connected with the tourism industry” have been created by private industry.
I found part where it says that the top 3 providers of jobs amount to 77.8% of jobs in the industry, but I cannot find what proportion of the remaining 22.2% are Government employees.