Bahamas Faces $2.7bn Tourism Shutdown Loss

By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas stands to lose $2.7bn in tourism revenues if the COVID-19 pandemic shuts down stopover visitors for the rest of 2020, Royal Bank’s (RBC) former top Caribbean economist is warning.

Marla Dukharan, analysing the pandemic’s likely impact on the region, revealed that this nation stands to lose up to 83 percent of its high-yielding land-based tourists if the global crisis lasts through year-end in a “worst case” scenario.

Should that play out, her research suggests The Bahamas’ annual revenue earnings from stopover visitors will plummet to $548m from $3.244bn in 2019 - a drop of some $2.7bn, which again highlights the potentially catastrophic fall-out from COVID-19 for this nation’s largest industry and the wider economy.  Read more >>