Saint Lucia's tourism industry poised for double digit growth during summer

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 – After growing by an estimated 10.3% to over twenty-five thousand visitors in the month of February, Saint Lucia's Tourism Industry is well poised for double digit growth during the summer period of May to August.

Speaking at a press conference Tuesday morning, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Senator the Honourable Allan Chastanet, said the projected growth is attributed to a significant increase in airlift capacity from key markets like the United States.

Minister Chastanet said the increased airlift was strategically negotiated to cater to travellers looking for an exciting summer getaway.

“Jet Blue is going to commence their additional services at the beginning of May with an increase from three to five weekly flights. American Airlines is a bit more complicated because there are scheduled changes which are a bit dramatic. AA is upgrading to four flights a week out of New York and those flights will now leave New York at 7AM arriving in Saint Lucia by 11:30AM. In addition, the morning flight out of Miami will now be serviced by a 757 aircraft so it increases by 15 seats to 188 seats.”

Minister Chastanet said Saint Lucia also stands to benefit from increased capacity from the US market by Delta Airlines.

“Delta Airlines is upgrading to a daily service but they are also adding two morning flights, so on Saturdays and Sundays, they will operate two flights leaving from Atlanta at 8AM. This provides a phenomenal connection to our west coast traffic ad it also helps us rekindle the market we once had in the Atlanta area.”

Airlift capacity from the Canadian Market is also poised to increase from one flight a week out of Toronto during the summer of last year, to four weekly flights this summer.

Minister Chastanet said during the summer season, Saint Lucia's airlift capacity will increase from twenty four thousand seats—an increase of fifteen thousand seats compared to last year.

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