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Latest Caribbean Tourism Report Delivers Mixed Numbers


Hotel Occupancy Remains Level Even as Overall Arrivals Dip

By Aldeth Lewin, The Virgin Islands Daily News, St. ThomasMcClatchy-Tribune Regional News

May 07, 2013--The Bureau of Economic Research released its November Tourism Indicators this week, and the numbers showed mixed results: Air arrivals were up, cruise arrivals were down and overall arrivals fell by 6.5 percent compared to the year before.

Continuing the trend for 2012, the number of cruise passengers continued to fall in November. Only February and April saw increases in cruise traffic compared with the previous year.

The St. Thomas-St. John District saw 182,862 cruise passengers visit in November 2012, which is 8.5 percent fewer than November 2011.

St. Croix saw about 2,000 fewer cruise passengers come through, for a 13.4 percent drop compared with November 2011.

On the flip side, overall air arrivals continued to increase. Only October saw a decrease in air traffic, and every other month in 2012 had more arrivals to the territory by plane than 2011.

The St. Thomas-St. John District had an 8.9 percent increase in air arrivals, but St. Croix had a 14.2 percent decrease in air traffic.

Hotel occupancy remained level in November compared with the previous year, and the territory's hotels averaged a 48.1 percent occupancy rate. St. Croix's average was 44 percent occupancy, and the St. Thomas-St. John District's average was 49.3 percent.

However, tax revenues were up. In November 2012, the territory collected $673,112 in hotel room tax compared with $528,388 collected in November 2011. The hotel room tax is a 10 percent tax charged for each room night paid for in the territory. The increase in revenues likely can be attributed to the rise in the hotel occupancy tax from 8 percent to 10 percent last year.

For the first 11 months of 2012, total arrivals largely were the same as the first 11 months of 2011, dropping by only 36,573. In 2012, 2.3 million people visited the territory from January through November.

- Contact reporter Aldeth Lewin at 714-9111 or email [email protected].

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(c)2013 The Virgin Islands Daily News (St. Thomas, VIR)

Visit The Virgin Islands Daily News (St. Thomas, VIR) at www.virginislandsdailynews.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services



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