Published on : Friday, January 11, 2019
Spread across all the niche markets, the combined cruise, yachting and stay over arrivals for 2018 was around 528,077 representing a 12.90 percent growth over 2017.
A powerful performance was recorded in stay over arrivals with a 9.97 percent growth, moving from 146,375 to 160,970 visitors with special emphasis given to the bumper Christmas season in which an expansion of 17 percent was recorded.
In 2018, Canada recorded the highest growth rate with a 19.05 percent rise (14,586-17,364), followed by the USA at 12.38 percent (67,252-75,577) and the Caribbean at 6.87 percent (27,127-28,990) respectively. Major growth was also recorded in non-traditional markets that comprised Latin America at 13.28 percent (1,265-1,433) and the category representing all other parts of the world at 18.27 percent (2,934-3, 470).
In market share for arrivals, the USA retains the top spot to the destination at 46.93 percent after the United Kingdom.
The yachting sector was recorded with double-digit growth of 10.82 percent, with visitor arrivals moving up from 21,911 to 24,281, a direct result of 428 more yacht calls. As it speaks about cruise arrivals, the sector expanded by 14.49 percent (299,449-342,826) due to larger cruise ship calls.
Speaking about Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique’s performance, Grenada Tourism Authority’s (GTA) Chief Executive Officer Patricia Maher said, “We are delighted to surpass the historic 500,000 mark. It is a result of our hard work in lobbying airlines for more flights and the engagement of top cruise brand executives for more ship calls. I would like to thank our stakeholders for their support in ensuring our visitors continue to have wonderful experiences in the destination.”
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