BVI sees nearly 10% rise in overall visitor arrivals
Overall visitor arrivals up to the third quarter of this year showed a slight increase of roughly 10 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
According to the government’s latest tourism summary for the Virgin Islands in 2024, the total number of visitors to the territory from January to September 2024 was 786,579. This figure represents an increase of 70,688 visitors over the 715,891 recorded for the same period last year.
The tourism summary indicated that the BVI saw growth across all three categories of visitor arrivals through the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
The number of cruise visitors increased to 541,405 through September 2024 from 504,322 in 2023—a rise of approximately 37,083, or 7.4%.
Overnight visitors increased to 233,175 this year from 202,110 in 2023, representing an increase of 31,065, or about 15.4%.
Meanwhile, day trippers increased from 9,459 in 2023 to 11,999 in 2024, marking a 26.9% increase.
The government noted in its third-quarter tourism report: “Reports of strong bookings in the cruise and overnight categories over the next few quarters point to a continued increase in overall visitor arrivals, which should result in the territory surpassing last year’s arrivals and eclipsing the one-million visitor mark (last achieved in 2016) for the second time.”
In September, during a House of Assembly debate, Premier and Minister of Tourism Dr Natalio Wheatley announced that the British Virgin Islands is experiencing a record number of visitors this year.
He highlighted that 2023 recorded the second-highest number of visitors in a calendar year, with 2019 trailing closely behind. The Premier also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had hindered progress between 2019 and 2023.
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Cruise ship, cruise ship, cruise ship – is this the only metric they look at? Because it is the least beneficial to the bulk of the private sector and have next to no impact on the outer islands.
I understand it is a positive metric as far as the gross calculation goes as well as direct revenues into Government’s pocket, but it has the least impact on much of the tourism sector itself.
The non-existent, all too secret tourism plan surely cannot be this?
Thank You @……..
Spot on! the cruise ships and their cruise sheep leave behind their waste, and feed the coffers of the treasury, and not much else. If the sole reason we have to put up with this nonsense is to supplement the treasury, something is very wrong.
does the BVI government keep such good records for tourist visits but cannot keep any records for spending money from the Treasury?
Seems like their priorities are backwards. Tourists visiting the BVI on a cruise ship that don’t spend any money here are meaningless. Daytrippers spend some money but they are only in the BVI for a 12 hr. day. Overnight visitors spend money so those numbers are the most important because their spending provides income to many types of businesses in the BVI.
Cruise ship passengers do not count they contribute almost nothing to the local community, except for the taxi drivers.
Visit the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association website and review the 2024 analysis. The USVI has a strong cruise ship oriented tourism product for over 20 years and they are lagging behind the Bahamas, Cozumel, Dominican Republic in passenger volume. The avg spent per passenger in the BVI is $72.49, compared to $166.22 in the USVI. realistically what market share the ministry of tourism want to capture? Why turn a luxury tourism destination to a port flooded by cruise ships?