Bermuda Tourism Authority Releases 3rd Quarter 2022 Tourism Measures
The Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) has released the destination’s third-quarter tourism performance for the period ending September 30, 2022, reporting signs of continued recovery. Tourism measures have seen growth over 2021 including figures, including growth from the UK, while traditional air arrivals from the US and Canada lagged.
Total year-to-date (YTD) leisure air arrivals at 79,745 represent growth of 76.1% YTD over 2021 figures. Specifically, leisure travel from the UK, down just 27.6% compared to 2019, has shown a much swifter recovery than our other primary markets (US, Canada). The increase in UK visitation has likely served as motivation for the airline carrier to resume seven-day-a-week service between Heathrow and Bermuda in March 2023.
Marine tourism which includes cruises, yachts and superyachts has performed well year to date. Cruise travel brought 176,650 passengers in Q3 driving the year-to-date totals to 302,777, 32.3% shy of 2019 passenger numbers. There were 40 yacht calls in the third quarter which is 11% behind 2019. YTD yacht visits have totalled 686, 9.6% off the volumes of 2019. The superyacht category has seen 80 calls since the beginning of the year, a milestone which exceeds 2020 figures (superyacht data started being measured in 2020) by 128.6%. The year-to-date economic impact from the growth in superyachts has likewise grown to $2.9million representing a 104.7% increase over 2020.
Bermuda’s visitor profile has shown some shifts with the return of boomers moving closer to 2019 numbers, while the pace of return for younger travellers has been less robust. Visitors travelling for business, a category which had previously been slow to recover, grew to 5,444, this quarter, which is still 43% less than in 2019. Air visitors whose purpose of travel was to visit friends and relatives grew to 6,370 moving the dial up 68.7% over 2021 and bringing it to 29.7% below the 2019 mark.
While Bermuda’s air visitor volumes were down by 44%, this quarter compared to 2019, the total visitor expenditure of $95.7M was down by just 30%. This, as per-person expenditure in Q3, increased to $1,941 per leisure air traveller, exceeding the per-person spend in the same period in 2019, by 20.9%
The work to restore air capacity for Bermuda continues with 27.5% growth over 2021. Suppressed hotel inventory has been a contributing factor to the slow pace of air capacity recovery and with 106,559 seats, capacity sits at 39.3% below 2019 for Q3. The encouraging news is that the load factors remain strong, moving in an upward direction to 2.6% above 2019 levels.
Tracy Berkeley, interim Chief Executive Officer said, “Our business intelligence informs both the big picture strategy and the tactical decisions of every division in this organisation. That is why it is important to us that this information is regularly shared with our partners in the industry and the community.”
Bermuda Tourism Authority publishes quarterly tourism measures and annual reports which are available on the corporate page of the Bermuda Tourism Authority website.
