HAMILTON, Bermuda — Bermuda’s tourism industry continued a gradual recovery in 2022, but visitor arrivals were still well below pre-pandemic levels, with the island playing host to 553,117 visitors last year, down from a record 808,242 in 2019, year-end figures show.
Cruise ship at Royal Navy Dockyard in Bermuda. (Bermuda Tourism Authority photo)The Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) report said the majority of visitors – 402,657 or 73 percent – arrived by cruise ship, with 145,865 visitors traveling by air. A further 4,595 visitors arrived by yacht.
But air arrivals pumped far more money into the economy, spending US$270 million during the year. Cruise ship passengers spent US$102 million. In 2019, visitors spent a total of US$520 million.
The figures also showed the United States remained Bermuda’s key market, with 73 percent of air visitors flying in from America. Visitors flying out of the United Kingdom made up a further 11 percent of air arrivals while Canada accounted for another nine percent of visitors.
“While there is more work to do to reach our pre-pandemic visitation levels, the data shows strong forward momentum,” said BTA’s chief operations officer, Erin Smith.
Smith noted that declining hotel capacity and air capacity were “limiting factors” that were impacting arrival numbers – airlines provided 356,000 seats to Bermuda last year, down from 580,000 in 2019.
However, according to the statistics, room numbers are marginally up on pre-pandemic levels. There were around 2,500 rooms available in 42 licensed properties last year, compared to around 2,400 rooms in 41 properties in 2019.
“While Bermuda has not yet returned to 2019 visitor volumes, the island saw significant year-over-year growth across key tourism measures in 2022 including air capacity, leisure air visitors and cruise travel as compared against 2021,” according to the executive summary in the report.
“Though significant increases were seen in 2022, year-end statistics underscore that more work remains to be done before reaching the baseline numbers of 2019.”
The report also noted that there was reason to believe that the industry will continue its upward momentum this year.
“With the termination of the island’s Public Health COVID emergency orders in November of 2022, Bermuda’s appeal as a vacation destination for 2023 has grown.
“The island can expect an historic increase in cruise arrivals which will positively impact tax revenue and generate more visitor traffic to businesses at each port. Bermuda looks forward to welcoming over 220 cruise calls and more passengers than in 2019.
“Air capacity to Bermuda is expected to reach at least 76 percent of 2019 levels this summer while hotel inventory remains at approximately 73 percent of pre-pandemic levels. This will limit growth in air visitors, although bookings for the year look strong and should translate into significant growth over 2022,” the report added.
