by Brian Major
Last updated: 4:54 PM ET, Tue December 8, 2020
Bermuda's visitor arrivals are rebounding slowly following the COVID-19 outbreak, yet remain significantly behind historic levels and will take "a great deal of time and effort" to rebuild, a top Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) official said Tuesday.
Bermuda's third-quarter commercial air capacity totaled 146,446 seats, an 83 percent year-over-year decline compared with 2019, according to a BTA report. There were 29,079 total airline seats available during the third quarter of 2020 compared with more than 175,000 seats in 2019, a 17 percent decline.
However, the territory's airline capacity and arrivals increased each month during the third quarter, said Glenn Jones, BTA's interim CEO. Airline seat capacity grew from 10 percent of last year's total in July of this year to 23 percent of 2019 levels in September. Leisure visitor arrivals increased similarly, from five percent of 2019 levels in July 2020 to 16 percent of 2019 levels by September of this year. Overall, leisure air arrivals dropped 92 percent, year-over-year, for the quarter to 5,711 visitors.
"Our tourism economy's recovery has begun slowly and gradually," said BTA interim CEO Glenn Jones. "The good news is that Bermuda reopened before many competing destinations, and we've continued to steadily increase industry performance, building airlift and welcoming back visitors, all while striving for a balance with robust health and safety measures."
BTA's data also reports length of stay across all visitor sectors increased significantly year-over-year, as leisure and business travelers stayed on the island an average of 10 and 13 days, respectively, during the third quarter of 2020 compared with five or six days during the same period in 2019. Travelers visiting friends or family remained in Bermuda an average of 20 days, compared with 10 days in 2019.
Also, leisure visitor spending fell from $111.9 million in the third quarter of 2019 to $11.8 million in 2020, an 89 decline. Yet per-person spending increased 29 percent for the quarter, "largely due to longer stays," say officials.
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