Minister of Tourism Carlos James says the projections are that the record-breaking stay-over arrivals to St. Vincent and the Grenadines will continue into the second quarter of the year.
He said that around this time last year, in the lead up to the Cricket World Cup, hotels were at 75-80% capacity.
“I’m happy to report that the same period this year, almost every major hotel in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is at 100% occupancy for the carnival season,” the minister told a press conference in Kingstown.
At the same time, airlines have recorded “very positive preseason bookings ahead of the Vincymas period,” James said.
“And, of course, one airline has signalled the intention to add additional seats to the destination during that period.”
James said that Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) numbers show that in 2024, SVG had a record-breaking 102,766 stay-over visitors, a 27.2% increase on the previous year.
This was followed by Curacao, at 20.3%, and St. Martin, at 19.8%.
For the first quarter of 2025, the performance indicators show a 12.8% increase over the same period last year, James said.
“So, we’re now 12.8% up. There’s an uptick, and our local numbers are showing 2.9% but the CTO numbers are ranked us at 2.8%. There’s some variance there, but by and large, we are seeing an uptick in our first quarter performance,” James said.
He said the CTO data show that during the first quarter of 2025, 11 reporting destinations saw growth from the United States, with 13 destinations exceeding their 2019 pre-pandemic performance.
“In terms of the arrivals from the US source market for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, we saw the strongest growth of 74.8%, followed by Curacao at 23.5%, Barbados at 22% and Antigua at 12.4% as the best performances attracting visitors from the United States in the first quarter of 2025,” James said.
He said the numbers show that SVG had the “the strongest growth performance in the entire Caribbean region, at 74.8% and the second-ranked best-performing Caribbean island with projected growth of 23.5%,” the minister said.
“You can see the distance in terms of where we performed, we outperformed many of the other Caribbean destinations as it relates to the visitors coming to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and to the Caribbean region from the US source market.”
He said that of the 20 CTO destinations that reported their numbers, 13 destinations saw positive growth performances, with the strongest coming from Curacao at 16.6%, followed by SVG at 12.8%, Bermuda at 9.8%, and Dominica at 9.6% across all source markets.
“The destination’s performance, of course, is reflective of the transformation that is taking place within our country’s tourism. And I want to indicate key drivers for growth, including our tourism infrastructure build-out, a greater collaboration, as I said earlier, with stakeholders,” James said.
“And no doubt, the International Airport at Argyle had a significant role to play in what we’re seeing now in our transformation as a globally-competitive tourism destination”.
Record breaking in comparison to last year? This has to be foolish thinking. Or maybe SVG started only started collecting data for stay over visitors last year. It is interesting that every thing in an election year is
record breaking. Seems that vincies cannot think for themselves. what ah place!
Do you really think Vincentian people cares about these numbers, this administration is posting these numbers to make ppl think they’re doing good and make them look good.
Can these hotels cover the unemployment rate, what about those who are not in hospitality, and not everyone can be a vendor to sell to tourist.
You guys been there for 25yrs and the country still in a poor bad state. Do you this will raise the people and the country on a whole out of poverty. Not saying we should’nt build hotels but this can’t be your main focus. You want praise for the things you were voted in place to do, you fix a piece ah road u want to boast about it, this is what you’re responsible for, the infostructure of the country.
One vote Carlos playing his role as ULP puppet. Funny how people will believe anything when properly screwed over. –In terms of the arrivals from the US source market for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, we saw the strongest growth of 74.8%, followed by Curacao at 23.5%, Barbados at 22% and Antigua at 12.4% as the best performances attracting visitors from the United States in the first quarter of 2025?– Even though that is false ULP will beat that donkey until it’s dead.
The development of SVG Tourism is taking too long. I remember working on the Bahama Island of Great Inagua in 2002 when Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves gave his inaguaral CARICOM address. The then Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas Hon Hubert Ingraham said many Caribbean Islands are pursuing unproductive industries and tourism which is the most productive is being ignored. While SVG has made significant progress 23 years later, a lot needs to be done to refine our tourism product.
The most important of these are to rejuvenate the beaches of Villa, India Bay, CSY, Young Island and Arnos Vale to enhance the tourist experience. Construct a Fish-Fry at the Southern end of the Arnos Vale Playing Field. Maintain the cleanliness of Kingstown. Construct a cruise ship berth in Bequia and finally, ressetle residents of Arnos Vale Bay and develop that area into fine dining restaurants, duty free outlets, Beach Bars, hotels, and water sports activities. Relocate the oil depot at Arnos Vale to another location. Arnos Vale Bay is prime real estate that can be put to better use. These are some thoughts.