With the final numbers tallied, destination Pure Grenada records total arrivals of 100,654 for January 2018, an increase of more than 30 percent over January 2017 (75,600).
In addition, Pure Grenada said all visitor categories reflected an increase including Stay-Over (13, 815) up by 13 percent, Cruise (82,797) up by 37 percent and Yachting (4,042) up by 43 percent.
“We are delighted with the performance, and everyone on the ground is enjoying the results of the hard work by all the tourism stakeholders,” said Patricia Maher, chief executive officer of the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA), in a statement. “The excitement with the opening of Silversands Grenada later this year is palpable, as it is the first hotel development on Grand Anse Beach in over 25 years.”
She said work is also progressing on the Kimpton, Kawana Bay, another hotel development on Grand Anse Beach, which will be open in 2019.
“We will grow our room stock by 32 percent in the next two years, which will lead to increased capacity to almost 3,000 licensed and certified rooms by the Grenada Tourism Authority,” Maher said.
To further support the destination’s developing tourism industry, Maher said the GTA and the Grenada Airports Authority (GAA) representatives attended Routes America 2018 from Feb. 13 – 15, in Quito, Ecuador, and met with 10 airlines to discuss expansion of service or new routes.
She said the interest in Grenada is growing and with the 16 percent growth in arrivals from the US market (67,250) in 2017 over 2016, adding that and United States market share at an all-time high of 46 percent.
“This strong performance data piqued the interest of the United States based airlines,” Maher said.
Building on this momentum, Maher said the marketing and sales team attended the New York Times Travel Show, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) Marketplace in Puerto Rico, Boston Globe Show and the Telegraph Travel Show in London in the first two months of the year.
Virgin Atlantic, in collaboration with Unilad Adventure, launched a destination video on social media that shares the many reasons to visit Grenada, “Spice of the Caribbean in 2018,” Maher said.
With all this heightened activity, the GTA forecasts a 6 percent growth in total visitor arrivals performance for 2018 “that will benefit all the citizens of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.”
