US consumer confidence affecting stopover visitor numbers, says Cooper

A drop in consumer confidence in the US and geopolitical tensions are to blame for a slowdown in stopover numbers in 2025, but tourism professionals hope the numbers can catch up to last year’s numbers by the end of the year, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation Chester Cooper said yesterday. Cooper, who made the remarks on the sidelines of the opening of King’s College’s boarding house, echoed the recent sentiments of hoteliers who said 2026 bookings for the first quarter are already trending ahead of this year. “Quarter one 2026 is looking strong. Fourth quarter 2025 is looking good, relative to last year,” said Cooper. “We’ve seen some some some dips in stopover visitors, driven mainly by the fall-off in consumer confidence in our major source market, the USA, as well as other geopolitical issues. “We’re tracking slightly behind last year, which was a record-setting year in terms of stopovers. But suffice to say, we are 10 percent ahead roughly in overall arrivals.” Cooper said the Ministry of Tourism continues to deploy strategies that could strengthen numbers by the end of the year. He added that missions to bolster the Canada market are beginning next week. “We are already up fairly significantly... 75 percent year over year, out of Canada,” said Cooper. He added that the tourism ministry is continuing its efforts to diversify source markets given the drop in consumer confidence in the US. He explained that the government will soon execute a memorandum of understanding with Brazil to expand airlift from that market. Cooper added that airlift out of Canada continues to improve. “We’re going to announce some improvements in airlift real soon, but we have a new flight announced only last week out of Montreal,” he said. “Porter will be coming direct to The Bahamas from Montreal, and we are going to be inviting 27 new flights now out of Canada to the Bahamas. These are in addition to what we had before.”