by Brian Major
Last updated: 12:35 PM ET, Fri January 17, 2025
Tiny Caribbean nation St. Vincent and the Grenadines experienced
large-scale tourism arrivals growth in 2024, with a 25.6 percent year-over-year
increase in land-based, overnight arrivals, said Carlos James, the island’s
minister of tourism.
The archipelago hosted 101,471 overnight visitors as of December
2024, James said. The figure represents the first time the country has
attracted over 100,000 land-based travelers and is also a 39 percent increase over
arrivals recorded in pre-covid 2019.
Compared to its destination peers in the region, James said,
St. Vincent and the Grenadines “has exhibited the highest average growth in [overnight]
arrivals.”
St. Vincent’s unprecedented tourism growth follows the May
2024 opening of the Sandals St. Vincent resort, which brought the destination
its first major resort brand.
James cited a subsequent “sharp increase in airlift, with
four new carriers added” during last year’s fourth quarter as behind the
increased arrivals.
He added that the Sandals resort’s launch, “a burgeoning
yachting and cruise sector,” and additional new hotel development including the
opening of Holiday Inn Express & Suites, La Vue Hotel and Myah’s Hotel
properties brought additional visitors to the country in 2024.
James said JetBlue Airways last year increased its flight
capacity departing to St. Vincent from New York’s JFK International Airport,
and Sunrise Airways, LIAT2020 and WINAIR also increased service to the
archipelago last year.
“This rapid growth within our tourism sector illustrates
the collective work that the ministry, tourism authority, our air and sea
ports, accommodations providers and our wider partners, are doing to ensure we
continue to offer an unmatched Caribbean experience for our visitors,” said
James.
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