The Saint Lucia Tourism Authority (SLTA) has presented a cautiously optimistic narrative about the island’s tourism performance in 2025, describing key market declines as “softened” or “marginal.” However, beneath this carefully crafted optimism lies a far more troubling reality. Significant declines in crucial source markets, a sharp drop in cruise arrivals, and unfavourable government revenue arrangements are combining to deliver a serious economic blow to Saint Lucia—one that threatens the livelihoods of thousands and contrasts sharply with the growth seen in some neighbouring Caribbean destinations.
Up to April 2025, stayover arrivals in Saint Lucia were down by 3% compared to the previous year. While the U.S. market continues to grow steadily, key markets such as Canada and the UK have experienced steep declines of 19% and 15%, respectively.
The UK market is especially critical to Saint Lucia’s tourism economy because UK visitors typically stay twice as long as U.S. tourists and spend significantly more per trip. This means that declines in UK arrivals have a disproportionately large impact on overall tourism revenue, far exceeding what a similar percentage drop in U.S. visitors would cause. The 15% reduction in UK tourists thus represents a substantial economic loss, affecting hotel occupancy, room night tax revenues, and spending in local businesses.
The loss of these higher-spending visitors translates into fewer room nights booked, directly reducing the room night tax revenue that funds SLTA’s marketing and promotional activities. This creates a vicious cycle where diminished income limits the authority’s ability to attract visitors, exacerbating the decline.
Cruise tourism, another cornerstone of Saint Lucia’s economy, has suffered an 11% slump in arrivals during the high season of 2025. This decline is compounded by the fact that Saint Lucia attracted 26 fewer cruise vessels up to the end of April 2025, compared with the same time in 2024, according to the SLTA. While the SLTA does not offer an explanation for this significant drop in cruise ship calls, one potential reason is the recent increase in the cruise head tax, which may have made Saint Lucia less competitive compared to other destinations.
Although the cruise head tax was recently increased from $6 to $12.50 per passenger, the government now receives only $2.50 per passenger—comprising $1 from the Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority (SLASPA) and $1.50 as an environmental levy—while Global Ports Holding (GPH) takes $10 under a controversial revenue-sharing agreement. This represents a 58.3% decrease in government revenue per passenger compared to the previous arrangement, where the government collected the entire $6.
Together, the 11% decline in cruise arrivals, the reduced number of cruise ship calls, and the 58.3% reduction in per-passenger revenue deliver a “triple whammy” that severely constrains government income from the cruise sector. This loss impacts not only public finances but also thousands of jobs directly and indirectly supported by cruise tourism—from port workers and tour operators to local vendors and transportation providers.
Tourism accounts for over 40% of Saint Lucia’s GDP and employs a significant portion of the population, especially women and vulnerable groups. The downturn in arrivals threatens livelihoods across the island, increasing unemployment and deepening economic hardship for those dependent on tourism-related jobs.
Reduced room night tax revenues limit the SLTA’s ability to market the destination effectively, risking further declines in arrivals. The diminished cruise passenger numbers reduce spending in local businesses, which rely heavily on tourist expenditures for survival. The government’s shrinking revenue from the cruise head tax further restricts its capacity to invest in tourism infrastructure and services, creating a feedback loop of decline.
Despite these severe challenges, SLTA’s official communications tend to downplay the situation. The authority’s failure to adequately explain the loss of cruise ship calls or address the implications of the GPH agreement raises concerns about transparency and accountability. Describing a 15% drop in the UK market as a “softening” or an 11% drop in cruise arrivals as a “marginal decline” mask the urgency of the problem. This optimistic framing may aim to maintain investor confidence and public morale but risks delaying critical policy responses needed to stabilize and grow the sector.
Saint Lucia’s struggles stand in contrast to the performance of other Caribbean destinations, including some not traditionally seen as tourism leaders. For example, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, historically a smaller player in Eastern Caribbean tourism, has reported steady increases in visitor arrivals and cruise ship calls in recent months. Similarly, Antigua and Barbuda and the British Virgin Islands have experienced strong growth in cruise and stayover visitors, sometimes outpacing Saint Lucia’s recent performance.
While Saint Lucia recorded over 1 million total visitor arrivals in 2023, including 615,000 cruise passengers, larger Caribbean cruise hubs like the Bahamas welcomed over 5 million cruise passengers annually. This competitive landscape underscores the urgency for Saint Lucia to address its accommodation shortages, airlift constraints, and unfavourable revenue-sharing agreements.
Saint Lucia remains a premier Caribbean destination, but the current declines in key markets and cruise arrivals reveal vulnerabilities that cannot be ignored. The SLTA’s use of euphemistic language to describe significant drops and its failure to provide clear explanations for critical issues such as the decline in cruise ship calls and the impacts of the GPH agreement risks obscuring the severity of the economic challenges facing the island.
The combination of reduced government revenue per cruise passenger, declining arrivals from high-value markets, shrinking cruise traffic, and a lack of transparency creates a perfect storm that threatens Saint Lucia’s tourism sector. Without decisive action—such as renegotiating cruise agreements, expanding accommodation capacity, improving airlift, enhancing destination marketing, and fostering greater transparency and accountability—the island risks losing ground in a fiercely competitive regional tourism market.
For the sake of the thousands of Saint Lucians whose livelihoods depend on tourism, it is imperative that the government and tourism authority move beyond optimistic narratives and implement strategic, transparent measures to restore growth and economic stability.