Nassau and Paradise Island serve as the gateway to the Bahamas, accounting for more than 80% of the archipelago's total tourism. The two islands are also home to the majority of the country's resort infrastructure, making their performance a bellwether for Bahamian tourism overall. Hotels editor Christina Jelski recently sat down with Joy Jibrilu, CEO of the Nassau & Paradise Island Promotion Board, to get the latest on the destination.
Joy Jibrilu
Q: What are you seeing in terms of performance for Nassau and Paradise Island?
A: 2023 and 2024 were great years for us. We were forecasting a really strong performance for 2025, but of course we're now dealing with geopolitics and the impact that's having on us. While we see hesitancy from our key source market, which is the United States, suddenly there's all this opportunity from Canada, from Latin America, from Europe. We've had an explosion of new airlift from Canada, with new gateways announced, and that's going to be a game changer. But we can't move away from the fact that the U.S. will always be our No. 1 source market -- 85% of all our tourists come from the U.S. So far, we've had a very strong April, and of course Easter was late [April 20], so we benefited from that. May, June, July are flat year on year. There's uncertainty. But the picture may still change quite dramatically.
Q: What factors are creating this volatility?
A: There's a shortening of the booking window. Instead of looking 60 days out or even 30 days, people are booking much closer to travel. We're seeing a 15-day booking window from the U.S. and Canada. From the U.K., they're more now in the 30-day range, and they used to be 90 days or longer. We're talking about a significant compression.
Related story: 2025 has been better for the Bahamas
Q: What's new with hotel development and property enhancements?
A: Baha Mar is talking about opening or beginning construction on a fourth hotel. They're in the permitting phase from the government to begin construction, and that will add significant room inventory plus a residential component, which will inevitably attract new visitors because it's something exciting and new. The other big game changer for Baha Mar has been the addition of the waterpark. They've also recently opened a kids club with curated experiences for children. Previously, it was more of an adult-focused destination. Now we're seeing more families traveling to Baha Mar.
Q: Cruise is showing incredible growth, but how are you dealing with challenges related to the volume of passengers?
A: Nassau alone last year had over 5 million cruise passengers, and this year and next year, it's projected to go up to 6 million. The Nassau cruise port is state of the art, and they're doing a much better job navigating this amount of people. They've created authenticity in Bahamian experiences, from retail outlets to food options.
Royal Caribbean is opening a beach club on Paradise Island. But even if 1 million of those 6 million passengers go there, there's still 5 million others that we have to find things for. So, we're being very creative. We renovated, at our own cost, one of Nassau's most iconic historical sites -- the Queen's Staircase. We restored it to its former glory with waterfalls and landscaping. It's now one of the most visited attractions by cruise passengers, and it's free. We maintain it year-round now.
Following our work on the Queen's Staircase, the government is now repairing the water tower at the top. We're hoping that by us stepping up, others will do the same. And we've got our sights on another project that's going to be equally impactful.