TOURISM BUDGET 2019
The Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, in partnership with our hospitality sector, is in the process of radically transforming the Vincentian tourism sector with a variety of initiatives. These initiatives are already bearing fruit.
Last year, preliminary numbers indicate that we welcomed over 52,000 more visitors than we did in 2017, a 17.3% increase. Stay-over arrivals were up 4.6%. Yacht arrivals rose 10.7%. And cruise ship arrivals increased a whopping 25% to 218,000 – the largest number of cruise arrivals in our history.19
The game-changing construction of the world-class Argyle International Airport (AIA) is the cornerstone of the Government’s thrust to capitalise on our country’s vast tourism potential. 2018 marked the first full year of operation of AIA. And what a year it has been.
The AIA welcomed 99 direct, round-trip flights from Toronto, New York and Miami, carrying a total of roughly 14,500 passengers each way. Those direct flights from various North American cities have been indispensible to the 4.6% increase in visitor air arrivals last year.
The naysayers, the prophets of doom, and the political opportunists have been proven irrevocably, embarrassingly wrong. Even in its infancy, the AIA is an unqualified success in laying the foundations for the future of Vincentian tourism: International visitors can and will come directly to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and our infrastructure is now more than up to the task of receiving those visitors in style and comfort.
Regionally, air travel in and out of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is now markedly more reliable because of the in-built advantages of AIA versus our former airport.
In 2019, we shall add more flights, from more airlines and more destinations. Discussions are well-advanced with additional carriers that will expand the growing reach and scope of the AIA.
