At a glance, arrivals for 2023 increased from 2022. But according to Tourim Minister Ernest Hilaire, more work can be done.
Numbers-wise, Saint Lucia recorded an increase of 7% in stay-over arrivals in 2023 compared to the previous year. In 2023, 380,791 visitors stayed in-country - a 27,211 increase over 2022’s figures.
The arrivals by cruise ships increased by 7% in 2023 when compared to the previous year. Saint Lucia recorded a total of 614,980 cruise passenger arrivals for 2023 - a 265,058 increase over 2022’s figures.
While impressive, the Tourism Minister notes that these figures do not surpass those of 2019, which he describes as a special year for tourism.
“From the data that you would have before you, you would notice for 2023, we registered an increase of 7% over 2022…We're still not yet at 2019 figures, which were the highest sea over rivals on record. 2019 was a record year for global tourism as well as regional and national tourism,” he observed.
Arrivals dipped severely in the summer months of June, July, and August. For stay-over arrivals, Saint Lucia experienced decreases in visitors as much as 20% lower. At its worst, the island had no cruise arrivals from June to August 2023. These figures pale next to the summer arrivals in 2019.
The Minister says the Tourism Authority has examined the cause of this dip and measures are being put in place.
“You will notice that during the summer, we actually had a soft period, and a lot of that had to do not with demand, but availability of flights and seats to Saint Lucia, which is why we worked extra hard to ensure that this summer we got some more seats available to Saint Lucia. Therefore, our numbers were affected during the summer. We were down almost about 11,000 arrivals during the summer,” he noted.
Another sore point for the Authority is the number of regional arrivals. In 2019, 5,555 Caribbean arrivals were recorded, with 4,770 in 2023. There’s not much of a change, and Dr. Hilaire attributes this to the lack of reliable regional airlines.
“You will notice by region, the Caribbean is still a challenge for us, and we certainly hoping to see even better numbers moving forward,” he said.
Regional travel is a teething issue for Caribbean governments, with calls to make regional travel more affordable and accessible being made.