Tourism Arrival Figures Raise Concerns

CONFLICTING pronouncements by the Saint Lucia Tourist Board (SLTB) and the new Minister for Tourism, Dominic Fedee, have reignited the debate about the tourism’s sector’s real performance of late.

Last week, Fedee chaired a press conference where he announced that year-to-date figures compiled by the SLTB showed an overall 11.7% decline in the tourism sector’s performance.

Fedee’s figure was quoted from the SLTB’s Tourist Arrivals Report for May this year and comprises a 1.1% (representing 1,793 visitors) decline in stay-over and 16.2% decline in cruise ship arrivals (representing 60, 837 visitors) on a year-to-date basis.

The VOICE got hold of a copy of that report from the SLTB this week and was told that it was compiled last monthend, with the next report due by this monthend.

During the period under review (May 2015 to May 2016), there was a 6.3% drop in cruise ship calls, representing 15 fewer cruise ships making Saint Lucia their port of call.

Previous figures for the sector provided by Director of Tourism, Louis Lewis, at a June 9 dinner hosted for travel agents indicated that the U.S. market was growing continuously, with the Canadian market bouncing back following the loss of room capacity.

In the May report, figures for the island’s top three markets – USA, UK and Canada indicated 3.8%, -3.1% and -12.7% growth respectively for stay-over arrivals, with the Caribbean recording a 9.2% increase and Germany -44.2%.

Despite March being the month in which most stay-overs visited Saint Lucia during the period under review, it was one of the two months between January to May that recorded increases, the other being May.

Bed nights (calculated by total arrivals minus people staying in private accommodation multiplied by average length of stay) fell by 7% (from 195, 886 in 2015 to 187, 374 in 2016).

Noticeably absent from the report were figures for the yachting sector, for which tabulating of figures have over the years been affected by double-booking.

Describing the numbers as “a gloomy picture” for the sector, Fedee said last week that most of the island’s market segments had experienced declines. The cruise sector, he added, had performed badly.

Previously known to record upwards of 5% growth overall annually, the Saint Lucia tourism product has been beleaguered of late by the effects of the Zika outbreak in the region and the weakening of the British pound following the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom.

Last year, Saint Lucia’s tourism industry recorded an overall 2% growth, with record numbers posted in the first four months. Also, for six months in the last year, the sector recorded its best performance in those months ever.

With the 2016/17 cruise season expected to better the reduced number of cruise ship arrivals for 2015/16, industry officials are expecting a return to more impressive figures in that sector, based on the number of vessels expected, their capacities and average loads.

With a fresh SLTB Board of Directors appointed last week, Fedee said every effort will be concentrated in reversing the poor performance in the cruise sector and refocusing and re-strategizing policies towards improving the overall marketing and development of the tourism product.