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2018 Annual Economic and Financial Review ST VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
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Eastern Caribbean Central Bank
expansion in the number of stay-over visitors
to 80,080, an improvement from the
contraction of 4.3 per cent in the previous
year. The rebound largely reflected growth in
stay-over visitors from extra-regional source
markets including the United States of
America and Canada. As the largest source
market with one-third of stay-over visitors,
arrivals from the United States of America
accelerated by 13.0 per cent from a low rate
of 1.0 per cent in the previous year.
This development was boosted by the
introduction of non-stop direct flights by
Caribbean Airlines from New York, and to a
lesser extent, the entry of American Airlines
from Miami in December 2018. Although
Canada still accounts for a small share of the
market, stay-over arrivals from this source
market continued to register strong growth in
2018. Benefitting from direct flights from Air
Canada Rouge during the winter season, stay-
over arrivals from Canada also grew at a
similarly remarkable rate of 13.0 per cent,
from 9.9 per cent in 2017 and 5.2 in 2016.
After two consecutive years of contraction,
stay-over arrivals from the United Kingdom
market rebounded at a rate of 9.2 per cent.
The previous reductions were driven largely
by the closure of Buccament Bay Resort in
December 2017. Partially offsetting these
expansions, were declines in stay-over
arrivals from the Caribbean and the other less-
established markets. Accounting for about a
third of stay-over arrivals in the period, the
number of stay-over visitors from the
Caribbean fell by 4.5 per cent to 23,807,
against the 2.2 per cent increase observed in
the prior year.
The growth in stay-over arrivals was
accompanied by significant expansions in the
cruise and yachting segments of visitors.
Despite 19 fewer cruise calls to
St Vincent and the Grenadines, growth was
recorded in the number of cruise passengers
(25.1 per cent) for 2018 to 217,876. This
represented a marked deceleration from
growth of 85.1 per cent in the previous year,
when the sub-sector benefitted from the
diversion related to the devastation caused to