Tourism Minister Touts Record Stayover Arrivals

With a bumper winter tourist season predicted, Saint Lucia is poised to shatter arrival records previously set in 2019, which statistically has been the best year ever for the vital tourism sector.   On Monday, during the pre-cabinet press briefing, Tourism Minister Dr. Ernest Hilaire revealed that already, the month of October this year has proven to be the best yet in terms of stayover arrivals. “October happens to be the best October we have ever had on record, the stayover arrivals for the month was 30,408, which was fifteen percent higher than last October and thirteen percent higher than October 2019,” Hilaire told reporters.    “This growth was primarily led by arrivals from both the US and the Caribbean. The US was twenty five percent higher than last October and the Caribbean was thirty percent higher than October 2023, respectively,” he shared. According to the Minister, Saint Lucia hosted a number of events in October, which contributed to the increase. Among them was Jounen Kweyol, CONCACAF Football and the REDLAC Conference. “We also had twenty one percent increase in seats for October. So we saw in the US the increase by 44%, American Airlines service from Miami and Charlotte and we...