St. Lucia had a stronger cruise season in 2025-26 than it had before the COVID-19 pandemic. St. Lucia also saw almost the same amount of cruise passengers as they had before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In total, the country received 673,700 cruise passengers during the last cruise season; 6.25 percent more than the prior cruise season and only .50 percent fewer than the largest total of cruise passengers ever recorded.
It’s interesting to note that the number of cruise ships visiting St. Lucia increased less than 1 percent, from 279 ships to 280 ships. This is down 11 percent from the record number of ships seen in the 2018-2019 cruise season.
According to Javan Lewis, Business Intelligence Manager at the St. Lucia Tourism Authority (STLA), the reason why there was such a large increase in passengers on each ship is due to larger vessels carrying many more people per ship.
Lewis stated that because of this trend, “we’re now much closer to our pre-pandemic highs in terms of cruise arrivals. That’s very good news for the industry, our vendors, our taxi drivers and everyone else who makes money off of cruises.”
Recently conducted STLA surveys on demographics and financial impacts for tourists visiting via cruise lines showed:
• Over 90 percent of cruise line visitors come from two countries — the U.S. (42 percent) or Great Britain (31 percent)
• The median age of visitors coming by cruise line is 52.7
• Approximately 70 percent of all visitors arriving via cruise lines are female
• Total estimated expenditures for direct spending related to cruise lines totals around $48.7 million USD (or EC $131 million)
• Visitors spent an average of $80 each on their visit
While visitor satisfaction remains very strong; according to the surveys:
• A total of 96 percent of visitors enjoyed the local cuisine.
• Ninety-four percent said they liked their guided tours.
• A total of 95 percent reported they were generally satisfied with their experience.
As a result of high visitor satisfaction, however, tourism officials believe there is still plenty of potential for strategic expansion and development opportunities.
Given that most visitors arrive in port and stay for between one hour and six hours on land, and given that a full 63.9 percent choose to explore on their own without guided tours, Lewis made clear his concern about the lack of high quality, half day tour options near ports for those visitors.