According to the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA), Grenada saw 100,654 total arrivals in January, an increase of more than 30 percent over January 2017.
In addition, all visitor categories reflected an increase including stay-overs (13, 815), which were up by 13 percent. Cruise numbers (82,797) were up by 37 percent and yachting numbers (4,042) were 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, CEO of the GTA, in a written release. “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.”
To further support the destination’s developing tourism industry, the GTA and the Grenada Airports Authority (GAA) representatives attended Routes America 2018 from February 13-15 in Quito, Ecuador and met with 10 airlines to discuss expansion of service or new routes.
According to the GTA, the interest in Grenada is growing and with the 16 percent growth in arrivals from the U.S. market (67,250) in 2017 over 2016 and U.S .market share at an all-time high of 46 percent, this strong performance data piqued the interest of the U.S.-based airlines.
“Work is also progressing on the Kimpton, Kawana Bay, another hotel development on Grand Anse Beach, which will be open in 2019,” said Maher. “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.”
Building on this momentum, the marketing and sales team attended the New York Times Travel Show, 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. With all this heightened activity, the GTA forecasts a six percent growth in total visitor arrivals performance for 2018 that will benefit all the citizens of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
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