Ernesto Cooke, in the St. Vincent Times, reports that St. Vincent and the Grenadines is seeing an increase in yachting arrivals coming out of COVID.
Minister of Tourism Carlos James said that in the month of January 2023, the numbers were up 84 percent from the previous year.
“The numbers are moving, from over 4,000 to 7,000 calls within the month of January 2023. It is showing that we’re just at the peak of moving out of our COVID downturn in terms of our numbers where tourism is concerned and yachting is leading the charge.
“We’re still not yet out of the woods, because when you look at the comparative numbers for 2019, we’re just below those numbers by 11 percent, which shows that there’s also room for improvement. This will only get better as we go into a post-COVID period in terms of yachting and marine tourism.”
James said Bequia was leading in the way in anchoring and clearance of yachts: “Over 4,000 yachts cleared in Bequia and just under 2,000 on Union Island.”
