Saint Lucia records surge of 42% visitors in June: Minister Ernest Hilaire

Castries, Saint Lucia: Saint Lucia witnessed a significant surge of 42% in arrival of visitors for the month of June 2024. With such milestones, Saint Lucia is continuing to break records in the tourism arrivals and rivalling all the best records to date.

As per the data unveiled by the Minister of Tourism of Saint Lucia, Dr Ernest Hilaire, all the four main markets recorded increases that was led by the US with a 55% month on month increase.

He also shed light on the increase in the seats over last June and stated that the second daily services from Miami operated by American Airlines, second daily services from New York operated by JetBlue and the services upgraded by American Airlines from Charlotte has played a huge role in enhancing the tourism sector and bringing large number of tourists to the country.

The tourism minister also noted the services from Caribbean as well as interCaribbean Airways and stated that they had more flights from them which was also a highlighting factor towards bringing large number of tourists to the country. Also, the non-traditional markets, which are grouped as the rest of the world, recorded an increase of 327%.

While shedding light on this surge, Minister Hilaire noted that a lot of that came from people who visited the country to watch the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup 2024. He stated that Saint Lucia welcomed spectators from all over the world including nations like India, South Africa, Afghanistan, Australia and Sri Lanka.

The Minister asserted that the arrival of large number of tourists made the June the fourth consecutive month of record-breaking arrivals and the fifth month for the year. Such expansion in tourism sector has also led Saint Lucia 15% ahead of arrivals recorded for first half of 2023 and 6% ahead of 2019 which was considered the best year for Saint Lucia on record.

This clearly demonstrates the huge impact cricket had on the arrivals during the month of June. Minister Hilaire stated that they are anticipating July to be even better than July 2023 which is considered as the best July ever in records. Therefore, he noted that the entire tourism management is hoping to continue to create milestones and break several tourism records.

The Minister of Tourism further remarked that such establishments also showcase that how the travellers are enjoying Saint Lucia and considering it as a premier destination for their vacations.