Antigua shatters tourism records in second quarter of 2024
Antigua and Barbuda’s tourism industry is soaring to new heights, with May 2024 setting unprecedented visitor arrival numbers. The twin-island nation continues its remarkable trajectory in the tourism sector, surpassing even pre-pandemic figures.
Official data reveals impressive growth across all arrival categories. As reported, “Air arrivals are up 12% over the same period in the year 2019 which is on record as being the best year overall in tourism pre-covid. Cruise arrivals have also indicated an increase of 35% while yachting is up 34%.”
Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez expressed his satisfaction with these results, stating, “We knew we were going to have a record year. It is important to note that forecasts indicated these increases outside of the expected numbers for the SIDS conference as well as World Cup cricket.”
While the current figures are cause for celebration, Fernandez remains cautiously optimistic about the upcoming winter season, acknowledging potential challenges posed by the hurricane season.
He remarked, “My thoughts and prayers are with our Caribbean brothers and sisters down south who were impacted by Hurricane Beryl and who themselves are heavily dependent upon tourism as their main revenue earner. It is therefore imperative that we remain vigilant to the end, with hotel properties and tourist attractions paying keen attention at this time to their disaster preparedness plans and putting things in place in case of any eventuality.”
The Minister took the opportunity to commend the collective efforts of all tourism stakeholders in Antigua and Barbuda, as well as team members of the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority and the Ministry of Tourism for this remarkable achievement.
