How Bahamian businesses show up online, by industry.

The Bahamas Digital Readiness Index (BDRI) checked 2,600 businesses on the Four Digital Doors in 2026, and in seven of eight industries, WhatsApp is the least open door their customers expect.

Tourism leads, and its visitors choose before they arrive.

13.9%

47 of 338 Tourism businesses have all Four Digital Doors open, meaning found and working. No other industry has a higher share.

In 2021, most overnight visitors planned on the internet more than TV or radio, the Ministry of Tourism found. In its 2024 survey, most booked online. That likely helps Tourism top the index.

In Insights: why Tourism leads, counted with and without the businesses found on Google

More from the index on why Tourism leads

The index’s own records lean the same way: among businesses with all four open, most in Auto Services are car rentals and the largest group in Salons and Beauty is spas, two kinds of business visitors use. Tourism is also the only industry whose businesses open each door more often than the country as a whole.

In all eight industries, some Bahamian businesses have all Four Digital Doors open.

Tourism’s share is more than three times the country’s. Every other industry sits below the country’s share except Creative Services, a small group.

Share with all Four Digital Doors open

Bars run from 0 to 15%

Creative Services has few businesses, so two of them make its share.
How many businesses in each industry have all four open
Businesses with all Four Digital Doors open, by industry, 2026 edition
Industry All four doors open Businesses in the industry
Tourism 47 338
Creative Services (small group) 2 30
Salons and Beauty 13 336
Restaurants 21 573
Home Services 8 253
Auto Services 7 255
Professional Services 8 416
Retail 6 399
All businesses 112 2,600

Each door, industry by industry

Find your industry and read across its row to see how many businesses like yours have a Google Business Profile, website, Facebook Page (the business page, not a personal profile) and WhatsApp open.

Of the 2,600 businesses the index read, most have at least one of the Four Digital Doors open, and half have no more than one. Where an industry runs ahead of the country, it is on a door its own customers use: Professional Services on websites, Restaurants on Facebook Pages and Home Services on WhatsApp.

Each cell is the share of that industry’s businesses with the door open, meaning found and working. Darker cells mean a larger share. Industries run in order of average score, the index’s 0 to 100 measure of how many of a business’s doors are open and how well they are built.

Share with the door open

The share of businesses with each of the Four Digital Doors open, by industry, 2026 edition, with the average number of doors open, the average readiness score, and the number of businesses observed. Rows are ordered by average readiness score, highest first.
Industry Google Business ProfileWebsiteFacebook PageWhatsApp Avg doors open Avg score Businesses
Tourism full reading for this industry 73.4% 58.3% 42.6% 33.7% 2.08 50.0 338
Restaurants full reading for this industry 70.9% 36.1% 43.8% 19.0% 1.70 40.2 573
Auto Services full reading for this industry 64.3% 23.9% 27.8% 28.6% 1.45 36.3 255
Creative Services full reading for this industry 46.7% 50.0% 20.0% 36.7% 1.53 36.2 30
Professional Services full reading for this industry 54.6% 54.3% 23.3% 9.1% 1.41 35.2 416
Salons and Beauty full reading for this industry 56.0% 29.2% 34.8% 27.7% 1.48 35.2 336
Home Services full reading for this industry 38.7% 27.7% 20.2% 37.2% 1.24 30.4 253
Retail full reading for this industry 57.4% 29.8% 31.3% 14.5% 1.33 28.3 399
National 60.5%38.2%33.2%22.7% 1.55
The index checked every door in public sources during the 2026 reading, and no business was asked to report its own doors.

WhatsApp is the expected door most often still closed, in seven of the eight industries.

On WhatsApp, you and a customer talk directly: you confirm an order or a time, send a payment link, ask for a review and answer questions about your hours.

Most businesses have a door open, but not every door customers expect.

An expected door earns the most points, so your score rises most when you open one you do not have yet. See how the points add up

Checking your score gives you a stage and a score. Your stage is one of the four in the table: No Doors Open, Doors Opening (some open), Expected Doors Open (every door your customers expect is open) or All Doors Open. Your score, out of 100, gives points for each door you have open, weighted by what your industry’s customers use, and fewer points for each check a door passes, such as a claimed Google listing or a website that works on a phone.

The same stage means something different for a salon than for a law firm. A salon with everything open except a website has every door its customers expect. A law firm in the same position does not, because its customers expect a website.

Once you have opened a door, ask for a fresh reading on the score webpage. It updates your doors and your current estimate. Your 2026 score and stage stay as published, because the 2026 edition is locked.

How opening a door moves your score and your stage

Opening any door adds to your score. It moves your stage only when it is your first door, the last of your expected doors, or your fourth. Building out a door you already have raises your score and leaves your stage where it is. In every industry, an expected door earns more points for being open than any other door, and more than all the checks on any one door add up to.

No Doors Open
552
Doors Opening
1,781
Expected Doors Open
155
All Doors Open
112

Where every business in the 2026 reading sits, stage by stage.

Check your score

Free · no account needed

Each of the Four Digital Doors does a different job for your customers.

A door does its job only when a customer can use it: find your listing, reach you on WhatsApp, see your Facebook Page and open your website.

What counts as open, door by door

A Google Business Profile counts as open when a customer who searches Google for your business can find your listing. Claiming the listing is a separate step that lets you correct what it says, and nine in ten businesses with all four open have claimed theirs.

A website counts as open when the address customers have for you opens a working website. Check that the address on your listings still loads: about one in four website addresses the index had on record did not.

A Facebook Page counts as open when your business has its own Page and the link to it still works. A personal profile used for the business does not count.

WhatsApp counts as open when customers can find a number or chat link for you that opens WhatsApp. Put it on your website and listings, and mark the number as WhatsApp where a listing lets you.

No industry needs all Four Digital Doors to meet what its customers expect.

You meet what your customers expect once your industry’s Required doors are open, and its row shows which doors those are.

Required means that industry’s customers expect to find a business there, and Recommended means many of them use it. Those Required doors are what this webpage calls a business’s expected doors. An Optional door is one the industry’s customers rarely use to find or choose a business, so it carries the fewest points.

Door priority by industry: each cell states whether the door is Required, Recommended, or Optional for that industry.
Industry Google Business ProfileWebsiteFacebook PageWhatsApp
Tourism RequiredRequiredRecommendedRequired
Restaurants RequiredRecommendedRequiredRequired
Auto Services RequiredRecommendedOptionalRequired
Creative Services RecommendedRequiredRecommendedRecommended
Professional Services RequiredRequiredOptionalRequired
Salons and Beauty RequiredRecommendedRequiredRequired
Home Services RequiredRecommendedOptionalRequired
Retail RecommendedOptionalRequiredRequired
Reading each door across all eight industries: Google Business Profile: Required in most industries in this table.Website: Required where customers research before they choose.Facebook Page: Required for Restaurants, Salons and Beauty, and Retail, where customers look before they walk in.
  • Required: customers in this industry expect to find the business here
  • Optional: this industry’s customers rarely use it to find or choose a business, so it carries the fewest points

The classes are the index’s judgment of what each industry’s customers use, and every other figure on this webpage is a measurement.

The score follows these classes: a door your industry marks Required is worth the most points.

The Four Digital Doors, door by door

Businesses with more doors open tend to have more Google reviews.

The likeliest reason is the path a customer takes: someone who finds you on Google can read your website or your Facebook Page before they call or walk in, and it is customers who leave reviews. Busy businesses may also be the ones that build more doors.

Median Google reviews

Each number is the median, the middle business’s count in its group. Reviews are counted on the Google listing, so a business whose one open door is not Google reads as zero here. Counting only businesses whose Google listing is open, the climb still holds through three doors and levels off at four.
Reviews counting only businesses with a Google listing open
Median Google reviews by number of doors open, counting only businesses whose Google listing is open, 2026 edition
Doors open Businesses with the Google listing open Median Google reviews
One door open 428 of 765 10
Two doors open 588 of 707 17
Three doors open 446 of 464 30
All four open 112 of 112 29

In Insights: how to ask customers for Google reviews

The reading the index ran on 2,600 businesses runs the same way on yours.

Free · no account needed