St. Vincent and The Grenadines Tourism Authority (SVGTA) announced a number of destination and flight updates, for travellers planning their vacations this summer.

A year-round service from Toronto to St. Vincent and the Grenadines will commence on Sunday April 7, 2024. The year-round service by Air Canada is an improvement from the seasonal service that was suspended during the summer months since the last two years.

Air Canada currently has four flights a week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays until March 29th, 2024. These flights will be available through www.aircanada.com or through travel agents.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines is currently serviced by several international carriers, including Air Canada out of Toronto, Virgin Atlantic flying from London Heathrow, Caribbean Airlines flying from New York JFK International Airport and American Airlines flying from Miami International.

International Music Festival

This October, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines (SVG) will see the return of international acts to the island as the country hosts its first international music festival.

“Following on the heels of the success of the One Family concert…it is time we create a global platform for our local creatives, allowing them to share the stage with international artistes and performers,” Minister James said.

Minister James noted that the international music festival will drive more visitors to the destination as the island prepares for year-round flights and tourism arrivals.

The destination has in the past hosted a Rhythm and Blues Festivals, the international music festival will see a greater level of involvement from local creatives as part of the programme, Minister James said.

National Film Commission to be established soon.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) will soon establish a National Film Commission as the Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Sustainable Development, and Culture expands its offerings in the hope of attracting more movie and reality television production sets to the island.

According to Minister James, the revamped National Cultural Foundation will work closely with the Ministry of Tourism, the Department of Culture, and the SVG Tourism Authority to facilitate the development of the regulatory framework and incentives to attract greater interest in the destination as a suitable location for the motion picture production.

The Walt Disney blockbuster movie Pirates of the Caribbean – The Curse of the Black Pearl was filmed in St Vincent and Grenadines in 2003.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines has in the recent past received international recognition in cinematography with representations at the Berlin Film Festival, also referred to as the Berlinale, by Vincentian filmmaker Aiko Roudette.

Destination Wedding, Experience SVG digital campaign set for global launch.

Following the recent amendments to the Marriage (Amendment) Act, there will be a renewed effort to promote St. Vincent and the Grenadines as a premier wedding destination in the region.

According to Minister James, the Marriage Act and its accompanying regulations now facilitate applications electronically with an online payment portal in place. Visitors will no longer need to travel to mainland from the Grenadines or visit to High Court Registry to lodge and pay for their marriage license.

“The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Tourism Authority, in collaboration with our stakeholders, will drive its marketing efforts to promote the country as a premier wedding destination,” Minister James said.

Meanwhile, the tourism minister said the island will launch a new digital marketing campaign dubbed “Experience St. Vincent and the Grenadines” across various digital platforms in major source markets.

“We have to promote the various experiences on our islands. There is no other island as diverse in its product offering. We are welcoming everyone to experience destination St. Vincent and the Grenadines through this digital marketing campaign,” Minister James said.

These initiatives, he said, are part of the marketing push by tourism authorities to intensify its marketing initiatives in source markets.

SVG tourism records growth amidst recovery

Visitor arrival numbers continue to show strong and robust signs of growth across all sub-sectors within the tourism industry, according to St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Tourism Minister, Honourable Carlos James.

Collectively, preliminary data is showing the year 2023 to be outperforming the year 2022 by an exponential 83.2 percent, almost doubling the previous year’s performance.

According to the tourism minister, while the country continues to recover from a global health pandemic and the explosive eruption of the La Soufriere Volcano, the uptick in tourism is a sign of the resilience of stakeholders within the industry.

“The road to recovery required robust economic adjustments, innovation, and greater collaboration among stakeholders and I want to commend everyone for playing a role in the recovery process,” Minister James said.

According to the tourism minister, cruise calls in 2023 jumped to 20 percent while cruise visitors to the destination went up by 120 percent over the corresponding period in 2022. He noted that destination SVG recorded a second consecutive year of growth in cruise calls to the island and has now surpassed its 2019 pre-pandemic numbers. 

Stay-over arrivals were up by 35 percent over the corresponding period in 2022, acknowledging stay-over arrival numbers to be still low, the minister assured that these numbers will improve with the expansion of the hotel room stock island.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines is expected to welcome the opening of a newly constructed Sandals Resort on March 27, and the completion of a Holiday Inn Express hotel this year.

Construction will commence later this year on a Marriot International Resorts, and a 250-room Royal Mill Hotel, among other hotels to complement its existing room stock.

Preliminary estimates are showing total visitor expenditure for 2023 exceeding over half a billion Eastern Caribbean Dollars.

For more information, visit DiscoverSVG.com or email the tourism board’s Toronto office directly at svgta.ca@discoversvg.com.