Feb. 10–The Caribbean Tourism Organization on Thursday reported historic tourism numbers for 2016, but the U.S. Virgin Islands saw a decrease in the annual number of visitors to the territory last year.
In the region, "tourism continues to break new ground, surpassing 29 million arrivals for the first time in our history, and once again we have grown faster than the global average," said Hugh Riley, secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization in remarks released Thursday.
"Despite political uncertainties, security and economic challenges in our main source markets, tourist arrivals to the Caribbean increased by 4.2 percent in 2016, better than the 3.9 percent overall, internationally," Riley said.
However, Bernadette Melendez, director of the V.I. Bureau of Economic Research, said Thursday that total visitors to the territory saw a substantial decrease last year. "The annual number of visitors to the territory in 2016 was 2,573,574, down from 2,643,021 recorded in 2015, a decline of 2.6 percent," she said.
"Air visitor arrivals grew by 4.3 percent from 764,174 to 796,889 in 2016. Cruise passenger arrivals fell by 5.4 percent from last year — 1,878,847 versus 1,776,685 in 2016," she said.
"The St. Thomas and St. John District experienced a gain of 3.8 percent in air visitors, to 646,260 in 2016 compared to 622,790 in 2015," Melendez noted in a statement issued Thursday evening. "St. Croix air arrivals grew 6.5 percent in 2016, to 150,629 from 141,384 in 2015," she said.
"In 2016, the St. Thomas and St. John district received 1,694,008 cruise passengers versus 1,747,596 in 2015, a decline of 3.1 percent. The island of St. Croix welcomed 117,138 cruise passengers, compared to the 159,353 that came in 2015," Melendez noted.
The new numbers show the fewest annual visitors to the territory since 2010. Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty was not available for comment.
Data posted on the Bureau of Economic Research website showed that St. Croix suffered a three-month period in 2016 — June, July and August — when no cruise ships docked, and the island saw only three cruise ship visits in May through October.
St. Croix recorded a drop of 22.4 percent in cruise ship calls and a drop of 26.5 percent in the number of cruise ship passengers, when comparing 2016 to the previous year.
From 2014 to 2015, St. Croix had recorded a 3.4 percent increase in the number of cruise ship visitors, and a 9.3 percent increase from 2013 to 2014.
Riley said cruise passenger arrivals in the Caribbean "grew by an estimated 1.3 percent, to approximately 26.3 million."
The Caribbean Tourism Organization has 29 member countries, and Riley's report said "about one-fifth of the countries reported declines" in tourism.
– Contact Jonathan Austin at 340-714-9104 or email
