The Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) has reported that the island has recorded a third successive month of increased tourist arrivals.
In a statement today, the GTA said 14,232 tourists visited the island in November, which represents a 17 per cent increase over 2019 figures.
GTA said tourist arrivals were boosted by the island hosting a number of major conferences including the CXC Annual Ministerial Summit, the Caribbean Society of Endoscopic Surgeons and the AGM of the Caribbean Chambers of Commerce.
International flights from Air Canada, Sunwing Airlines and Condor Airlines, along with British Airways expanding their flight schedule from London Gatwick allowed travellers to have more options to visit Grenada, according to GTA.
CEO of the GTA Petra Roach stated: “During the pandemic, we did a lot of groundwork putting systems in place to create a more efficient operation and also to evaluate our activity. We engaged new PR teams in North America and the UK and strengthened our overseas sales teams. Our digital footprint has expanded significantly which has given us a much more cost-effective marketing reach.”
“A lot of time was prioritized for deepening the relationships with our distribution channels in the marketplace – i.e our travel agent and tour operator partners, to better understand how their businesses aligns with our product. We continue to build our brand equity so that travellers keep Grenada in their consideration set of destinations they want to visit. We are laser-focused on attracting visitors who want to take advantage of our safe environment, numerous community initiatives and who want to get out and about.”
The Honourable Lennox Andrews, Minister of Economic Development, Planning, Tourism, ICT and Creative Economy, Agriculture and Lands, Fisheries and Cooperatives stated: “We are heartened to see our arrival figures rebound so strongly with September, October and November showing increases of 11 per cent, six per cent and 17 per cent respectively over the previous banner year of 2019. This is historically the highest November arrivals recorded.”
“The USA market has shown the strongest rebound and represents 61 per cent of overall visitation. We expect that market to finish the year 2022 with a two per cent growth over 2019 which, given the fact that Grenada opened its ports only in April of this year, shows how strong our recovery has been.”
It speaks to a sound and focused strategy where connectivity and accessibility to our tri-island state remain highly prioritized. We as a government are committed to ensuring that we provide every opportunity for our people to benefit from this industry.”
GTA added that this month is also projected to surpass the previous high of December 2019.
