ST. LUCIA – Preliminary figures released by the St Lucia Tourist Board show that the number of tourist stopover arrivals, that is persons staying 24 hours or more, increased by 9% in August 2008, to 25,315 visitors, compared with 22,249 visitors who arrived in August 2007. The volume of cruise visitors declined however as a result of two fewer calls being made by cruise ships this August compared to August 2007.
The number of visitors from the United Kingdom grew by 7.4%, from 5,387 in August 2007 to 5,784 this August. The number of visitors from other European countries jumped 25% compared with last August, from 805 to 1,006, led by strong increases from France (up 33%) and Ireland (up 67%). Arrivals from the United States fell slightly, by 1%, from 8,344 last August to 8,235 this August. Arrivals from Canada showed a good 59% increase from 626 in August 2007 to 1,017 this August.
Traffic from Caribbean markets showed a 15% increase compared with August 2007, growing from 7,675 visitors last year to 8,869 visitors in August 2008. Caribbean arrival numbers were led by traffic from Martinique which grew by 46%, from 3,031 last August to 4,427 this August.
St. Lucia received 19,659 cruise visitors in August 2008, a 25% drop from August 2007 when the island hosted 26,555 cruise visitors. It should be noted that tourist arrivals to St Lucia were negatively impacted in August 2007 when Tropical Storm Dean passed close to the island.
Stopover traffic increased by 7% in the first eight months of 2008
Through the first eight months of 2008 the overall number of stopover visitors was 7.3% higher than for the same eight months of 2007, increasing from 200,895 visitors in 2007 to 215,640 in 2008.
Traffic from the USA increased by 5.7% in the first eight months of 2008, up from 78,846 arrivals in 2007 to 83,320 in the first eight months of 2008. The volume of stopovers from the United Kingdom also showed strong growth, increasing by 7.8%, from 53,990 arrivals in 2007 to 58,205 visitors in the first eight months of 2008. The number of stopover arrivals from the Caribbean grew by 1.5% in the first eight months of 2008 compared with the same eight months of 2007, with traffic from Martinique growing by 12.1%.
The number of cruise visitors increased by 7.8% in the first eight months of 2008 compared with the same eight months of 2007, growing from 386,504 visitors in 2007 to 416,774 this year, with cruise ships making 11 more calls in the first eight months of this year compared with 2007.
