Bahamas Hotel Investment Spreads Beyond Nassau After Record Visitor Year

12.5 million total visitors in 2025; 11.4% year-over-year growth; more than 1.8 million stopover visitors; nearly 30% of stopovers travelling to the Out Islands; 110 hotel rooms and 97 residences reported for Cotton Bay.

The January 2026 results said Eleuthera recorded nearly 30% visitor growth and Grand Bahama passed one million total arrivals. A July development update said the Cotton Bay project had broken ground in South Eleuthera and was expected to combine hotel rooms with branded residences.

On Exuma, the ministry reported a major resort transformation within a market it described as having 550 hotel rooms and 2,750 vacation-rental rooms. The projects are named public news subjects, not CaribbeanRFID clients.

A mixed hotel-and-residence project introduces at least two custody models. Guests return or expire credentials around stays; residence owners may retain theirs for years. A transformation project introduces a different issue: legacy stock, changed artwork, refurbishment phases and the possibility that access equipment is retained in some areas and replaced in others.

The Bahamas story is split between very high national visitor volume and a smaller but operationally important stopover market distributed across multiple islands. The Cotton Bay hotel-and-residence mix and the Exuma transformation illustrate why Out Island accommodation cannot be treated as an extension of a Nassau stock room.

Cruise arrivals dominate the national total, but they do not determine a hotel-room credential brief. The relevant hotel evidence is the stopover distribution and the specific accommodation projects, each of which requires a local system and custody record.

Every destination property should provide its own working reference or accountable system record. We test the proposed 125 kHz LF or 13.56 MHz HF/NFC construction on that environment and label finished cartons by property, product role, artwork revision and number range. Identical artwork does not make untested stock interchangeable.

Room cards can use CR80—85.6 × 54 mm and 0.76 mm—where the installed system accepts it. Residence cards, transient room stock and staff cards should have controlled identifiers even when their guest-facing design remains related.

Silicone bands can fit repeated sea and pool exposure when closure, comfort and module position pass the property test. Resident, day-visitor and staff bands should be recognisable without scanning. A slow-drying body is wrong for continuous immersion, and a transferable closure is wrong when the band proves entitlement.

A single national SKU is wrong when Eleuthera, Exuma and Nassau properties have separate systems, custody models and receiving points.

For island-specific product context, review RFID key cards and wristbands for The Bahamas. Final suitability remains conditional on the installed system, a production-representative sample and the property's approval.