By Robert Andre Emmanuel
Antigua and Barbuda is looking forward to a record-breaking year for its tourism industry, after officials at Antigua Cruise Port revealed that 23 cruise ships will be heading to the sister isle for the 2024-2025 cruise tourism season.
This figure was announced at the Antigua Cruise Connect Conference held at the John E St Luce Financial Centre yesterday that brought together key stakeholders to highlight the success and economic impact of the tourism sector, discuss growth opportunities and strategies for the upcoming season.
Rawles Reynolds, Operations Manager at Antigua Cruise Port, highlighted a significant development for Barbuda, announcing “this is up from roughly about one or two per season.”
This marks a substantial increase in cruise traffic for the smaller island of the twin-nation state, with an expected 5,000 passengers expected to touch down on the sister isle.
“These are mostly from the luxurious type of calls and so there are individuals who want to come and relax on isolated areas or beaches…they see Barbuda as that [private island getaway] that we can do for them,” Reynolds remarked.
Meanwhile, Antigua’s two cruise ports, Falmouth and Hertiage Quay will see 58 cruise calls and 351 cruise calls respectively, leading to a total 432 calls expected for the season.
Antigua Cruise Port additionally announced record-breaking growth for the 2023-2024 season, expecting 811,931 passengers across 425 calls, a 7.5% increase in volume from the previous year.
General Manager of Antigua Cruise Port, Gasper George, noted that coming out of the Covid pandemic, there has been a noticeable increase in younger tourists.
“By 2027, it is projected that the cruise industry will be nearly 40 million passengers from a global perspective, that means there are a lot of persons who will be cruising… whilst you have the baby boomers (ages 57–77) and the Generation X (ages 41–56) trending, there is an important group called the millennials—persons under the age of 40 and they’re really now hitting the market.
“They have money, and they want to travel but there are certain characteristics and psychographics that they come with—they want fun and that means you really have to do some work there as the region,” he explained.
He added that there has been an increase in family arrivals involving multiple generations.
Yesterday’s conference also saw Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez and CEO of the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority Colin James highlighting critical investments in the tourism industry, including the new Barbuda International Airport, which will hold the aircode, BBQ—a point which CEO James was quick to note will receive great attention from tourism officials to market the sister isle.
