Tourism to Saint Lucia makes a splash
ANN RUPPENSTEIN
With an abundance of marine life and coral reefs, Saint Lucia has long appealed to snorkelers and divers. But something is coming that’s going to draw in even more tourists who are looking to take the plunge in Saint Lucia.
“We’re looking at an underwater sculpture park. I’m not sure of the location as yet but that’s the newest piece that we have unfolding,” shared Thomas Leonce, board director with oversight for marketing for the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority, during Saint Lucia’s press update during the 42nd Caribbean Travel Marketplace.
Under water sculpture parks in destinations like Grenada have become major tourist sites.
Meanwhile, Guibion Ferdinand, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism for Saint Lucia, noted that arrivals continue to grow year over year with a 7 per cent increase in arrivals in 2023 over 2022.
“So far this year, 2024, we’ve seen a steady increase in the numbers every month from January to now there’s been an increase over the previous year. There’s about an 11 per cent increase over all in our arrivals so this is looking really good and if that trend continues we’re looking at record numbers,” he shared. “In the month of March, we saw the highest ever amount of arrivals in Saint Lucia in history so March was a glorious month for us.”
For the summer, Air Canada will fly nonstop on Sundays and Wednesdays and WestJet service is on Sundays and Thursdays.
“We’re looking to increase our airlift for the summer by about 40,000 [seats] so that is quite encouraging and we can well imagine the benefits that will bring to our country,” he added.
In terms of development, some significant investments are currently under construction or in the pipeline. Set to open by the end of the year is Cas en Bas Beach Resort, which will mark the introduction of the Destination by Hyatt brand in the Caribbean with 96 rooms. A 334-room Secrets Resorts at Choc Bay and a 140-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel at Pointe Seraphine Castries are also underway.
“And very interestingly, we’ve now introduced something I think we’re the first to do in the Caribbean — we’ve teamed up with TheLifeCo group to introduce wellness tourism,” he added. “We just broke ground on the 16th of May and are expecting to progress with a 523 room wellness resort in the north. It will be very organic with what Saint Lucia offers, that will complement for example the already well established mineral bath at the sulphur springs and a number of other packages that go towards wellness tourism.”
As for cruising, he said Saint Lucia is investing in attracting new cruise lines with a port development in the capital city of Castries to allow for some larger vessels, which will also have a boardwalk and a fisherman’s village. Improvements are also set for the Soufrière port to increase capacity.
“For 2024, we noticed we’re already returning to pre-covid numbers. We’ve seen a 10 per cent increase in cruise arrivals and because of the development at port Castries we expect that number to grow,” he shared. “In essence, we’ve really seen a successful 2023 and there’s good stuff coming for 2024. There’s expectations that the numbers will increase, the product range will increase and the experience will increase.”
During the event, Saint Lucia was also named the recipients of this year’s Caribbean Destination Resilience Award for Category B, a destination with under 500,000 annual stopover visitors.
“These awards are aimed at recognizing destinations with a deliberate focus on resiliency as indicated by their commitments to address some or all of the UNWTO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals,” said Vanessa Ledesma, acting CEO and director general of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association. “Special emphasis is placed on recognizing destinations with a collaborative and initiative approach to engaging public and private sector stakeholders in innovative needs-driven strategies.”
