Tourism on the rise

The rest of the region saw a smaller increase in arrivals, but still reported an exceedingly large number of visitors, with 28.7 million being stay-over visitors, according to data from the Caribbean Tourism Organisation.

There were 14.3 million stayover visitors arriving from the US, 3.4 million from Canada, 5.2 million from Europe, 2.1 million from South America, and 1.7 million from other Caribbean islands.

In 2015, visitors to the Caribbean spent an estimated US$30 billion, an increase of 4.2 percent over the US$28.8 billion spent by visitors in 2014.

In 2015, Barbados, up to that time, had recorded its best year in the history of tourist arrivals with 571,892 visitors. (There were 610,000 in 2016.) There were 260 cruise ship calls for the 2015/2016 season.

For St Lucia, the good news started early in 2015 when more than 31,500 visitors entered the island in January, the largest number ever for January of any year. Total visitor arrivals for 2015 reached 312,761, an increase of 8,013 over 2014.

Cruise passenger arrivals for 2015 increased by 10.1 percent, reaching 582,475 by the end of November.

The United States remains the island’s largest source market, followed by the United Kingdom and the other Caribbean islands.

In 2015, visitor arrivals to Grenada were 443,368, an increase of 12.7 percent when compared to 393,339 in 2014. The number of stay-over visitors was 140,735, an increase of 5.4 percent over 2014. Forty-one percent arrived from the US, with other visitors coming from the UK, Canada, Germany and other Caribbean islands.

For the first three months of the season there were 110,000 cruise passengers and in November 2015, there was a record of 29 cruise ship calls bringing 50,000 passengers.

Cruise and stay-over visitors to Grenada contributed an estimated $362 million Eastern Caribbean dollars to the Grenadian economy in 2015.

Rudy Grant, CEO of the Grenada Tourism Authority, said, “We have seen positive growth in Grenada’s tourism sector last year.

Fifty thousand more visitors in 2015 than in 2014 is testament to the dedication of our stakeholders and the commitment of our trade partners. Seventy-six new rooms have been added to the Grenada Tourism Authority’s registered room stock, and increased flights added to our schedule.” Grenada is also attracting a growing number of yachties. Do you remember when the yacht repair facilities offered in Chaguaramas were the foremost in the south Caribbean? Why did Chaguaramas not maintain this reputation? For 2015, there were 206,662 arriving visitors to St Vincent and the Grenadines. Of this number, 75,381 were stop-over visitors including 22,063 from the US, 17,045 from the UK, 7,515 from Canada, 7,306 from Trinidad and Tobago and 6,115 from Barbados.

In that year, St Vincent and the Grenadines welcomed 231 cruise ships, bringing 82,079 passengers.

Trinis may wonder why are our neighbours so successful at attracting visitors? What do they offer that we do not? What are they doing correctly that we are not? Sandals, “the most powerful resort brand in the Caribbean,” has expressed an interest in constructing a resort in Tobago, joining the 12 other Sandals resorts in the Caribbean: four in Jamaica, three in St Lucia, two in the Bahamas, and one each in Antigua, Grenada and Barbados.

Let us be realistic, a Beaches resort or a Sandals resort enhances and gives “status” to an existing destination but it does not create the attractiveness of the destination.

The people must do that.