The number of tourists visiting St. Vincent (SVG) is approaching levels observed before to the pandemic, as evidenced by an upward trajectory in arrivals from key source markets.
On Monday, the Minister of Tourism, Carlos James, made a public announcement regarding this matter.
According to James, the numerical data pertaining to the initial months of the current year, spanning from January to May, indicates a notable resurgence in the tourism sector of the island. According to his statement, the data indicates that the sector represents around 94.6% of the figures recorded in 2019, which is regarded as the reference year.
“We had some record numbers of tourism arrivals just before the pandemic.” And we are on the verge of returning to pre-pandemic levels, where stay-over arrivals are a concern.
“We have seen an increase in arrivals from major US source markets this year, 2023 to 2022, for the period January to May; we are up 36.5%.” We are over 117% Canadian. And one of the reasons is due to Air Canada flights, which will return at the start of the winter season, and from Europe, we are up just over 19% compared to the same period last year, January to May. So total arrivals are up 46% compared to the same period last year.”
James noted that the data reveals a noteworthy trend: tourists from the United States of America have surpassed the figures recorded in 2019 by a significant margin of 9.4%. This finding suggests that the tourism sector is seeing a near-complete rebound from the pre-pandemic period, particularly in terms of our primary source markets.
“I think that really puts the uptick in tourism—the recovery—in context.” It will be a lengthy period, but one in which we will demonstrate the resilience of our Vincentian people and work very hard to maintain positive numbers,” James added.
