With a bumper winter tourist season predicted, Saint Lucia is poised to shatter arrival records previously set in 2019, which statistically has been the best year ever for the vital tourism sector.
On Monday, during the pre-cabinet press briefing, Tourism Minister Dr. Ernest Hilaire revealed that already, the month of October this year has proven to be the best yet in terms of stayover arrivals.
“October happens to be the best October we have ever had on record, the stayover arrivals for the month was 30,408, which was fifteen percent higher than last October and thirteen percent higher than October 2019,” Hilaire told reporters.
“This growth was primarily led by arrivals from both the US and the Caribbean. The US was twenty five percent higher than last October and the Caribbean was thirty percent higher than October 2023, respectively,” he shared.
According to the Minister, Saint Lucia hosted a number of events in October, which contributed to the increase. Among them was Jounen Kweyol, CONCACAF Football and the REDLAC Conference.
“We also had twenty one percent increase in seats for October. So we saw in the US the increase by 44%, American Airlines service from Miami and Charlotte and we had the Jet Blue service from JFK. In the Caribbean we saw increased flights from Inter Caribbean and in the UK the number of seats increased by six percent, with the introduction of the Virgin Atlantic service,” Hilaire explained.
It was also reported Monday, that year- to-date stayover arrivals were up 16% from last year and 4% from 2019.
“We haven’t got the November figures yet but we are expecting November also to have been a very good month and so we are on track for 2024 to be the best year ever for stayover arrivals and we have already indicated it will be the best year for cruise passengers, we are expecting at least 825,000 cruse passengers for 2024,” Dr. Hilaire told reporters.
The Minister went on to say that as the busy winter season unfolds, he expects all agencies to be on board to protect the industry and guard against visitor harassment and crime.
However, he lamented the slow implementation of the Rangers Unit but said that money has been allocated for its reestablishment.
