The trendy and highly sought after Caribbean destination of Saint Lucia continues to bask in news of more record growth for the island’s leading economic driver, the tourism industry.
According to the latest figures released to industry partners, the month of July saw Saint Lucia recording not only the highest number of visitor arrival figures ever recorded for the month of July, but also for any one month period in the island’s history. This surpasses the record set last March by 2.5%, when 41,741 visitors stayed on island.
In July 2019 Saint Lucia welcomed a total of 42,773 visitors, an increase of 13% or roughly 5,000 additional visitors from July last year.
The US market grew by a whopping 23%, owing largely to the hosting of Carnival activities and the additional airlift from American Airlines out of Miami. The Caribbean market recorded 6% growth due to a series of summer vacation campaigns notably Carnival, Caribcation, Mercury Fest, the hosting of the CARICOM Heads of Government Summit and the introduction of the second Capo Rosso ferry from Martinique.
Arrivals from France grew by 2%, the rest of Europe by 17% and the rest of World by 61%.
Despite the overwhelmingly positive increases there were however some decreases in arrivals for the month of July from three markets, namely the UK 3%, Canada 3% and Germany 18%.
Notwithstanding this, Tourism Minister Dominic Fedee says Year To Date July 2019, all markets are recording growth, except Canada and France, which are down 3.5% and 0.5% respectively.
Minister Fedee, who also holds the portfolios of Culture and Creative Industries, notes that due to this double-digit increase recorded in July, together with the increases from the previous months, YTD stay-over arrivals are now 7.5% higher than the same period last year.