St Vincent and the Grenadines has seen a 30% increase in stay over visits for the first six months of 2024.
This announcement was made by the Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation Sustainable Development and Culture, Hon. Carlos James, on Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference for the launch of the new JetBlue flight to SVG, the Minster stated that the tourism sector has seen an increase in stay over visits to the island for the first half of this year, as compared to 2023.
“On this occasion, I’m happy to share with the media that year on year, in comparison to 2023, within the first six months of 2024, our stay over numbers grew by some 30%. This is something that is really the tourism authority, the research unit, the staff is looking at the numbers. And what we are seeing is just over 11,000 to 12,000 more people come into the destination within the first six months of the year.
The Minister also noted that compared to stay over numbers post Covid, there was a 20% increase.
“If you were to look at the comparative data pre COVID, and I’m taking you back to 2019, which we consider a benchmark year, to track our recovery posts COVID and now post-Beryl, we are up 20% in stay over rivals for the first six months of the year. And this is in comparison to where we were before COVID. So we’re up 20% above our COVID numbers. And we are up 30% above our numbers from last year’s performance in terms of a stay over arrivals for the first six months of the year.” He said.
