Exploring New Source Markets and Adding Over 2000 rooms
St. Lucia’s Tourism Minister Dr. Ernest Hilaire is convinced that come next year the island will experience heightened tourism numbers unlike recent years. The tourism minister was speaking against the backdrop of criticism levelled at Philip Pierre administration’s alleged poor handling of the industry in recent years.
Hilaire agreed the tourism numbers had experienced a decline but explained again that the decline was due in large measure to the massive loss of hotel rooms due to closed hotels and demolished properties particularly in the north of the island. The tourism minister insists that with the properties currently being built and those expected to commence construction in the near future, the country is on the right footing to realize better figures aligned with pre-pandemic numbers. “The hotels on the Reduit Beach, three hotels were broken down, so were still about 500 rooms short. Now if you have less rooms your numbers will be under pressure and then you add the UK which is our second largest source market, there are a lot of challenges in the UK market; we have less family options than we use to have.”
Hilaire seemed excited about the new additions. “We are pushing aggressively to expand the number of rooms in St. Lucia. So Lifeco opened recently. We are pushing hard to get Canelles open by the end of this year, early next year. We are going to start work on the first of three hotels which were broken down on the Reduit Beach during the middle of this year. So, we are expecting, by the time Aila, Reduit Beach and a couple of other properties are finished, we would have added over 2000 rooms. So, we need to find new source markets.”
Dr. Hilaire revealed that the proposed new source markets include Latin America. A St. Lucia delegation is just back from World Travel Market Latin America, an event which the island participated in for the very first time. “It is the first time we actually had a presence there and we met with tour operators, travel agents and other operators in the Latin American market, and it represents for us a determine effort to engage with the Latin American market. Latin America is one of the fastest growing source markets especially for luxury travel, so St. Lucia certainly wants to have a more active presence in that market.” The tourism minister revealed that the government is working on the complimentary airlift to support the Latin push. He also revealed that World Travel Market Latin America will be hosted in St. Lucia in May next year.
Dr. Hilaire also reported on another tourism delegation engagement in the cruise industry. The local delegation met with cruse ship officials in Miami at Seatrade Global 2026 where the island’s current position was reportedly explained. “We got an opportunity to update them on what’s happening for port development in St. Lucia, also to update the industry on some of the community excursions and experiences being developed in St. Lucia. You would recognize from the data coming out from last year our numbers are still not at the level of pre-pandemic as yet, so we really expect this year, based on feedback from the market and the way the year started off, that we will pass the 2019 numbers.”
Some preliminary work has begun for the re-establishment of the Vieux Fort cruise port as well as planned works to take place in Soufriere as part of the overall redesigning of the local cruise industry.