Visitors spent over $300-million in Dominica in 2014 – Tonge

Cruise visitors in Roseau
Cruise visitors in Roseau

Visitors to Dominica spent a total on $343-million in 2014, Tourism Minister, Robert Tonge, has revealed.

Addressing the closing ceremony of Tourism Awareness Month on Monday, he noted this is testament of the contribution of tourism to the island’s economy and its potential growth.

Tonge also stated that in 2014 Dominica received 81,472 stay-over visitors, 286,573 cruise passengers, 2,195 same day visitors or excursionists and 12,134 yacht visitors.

He noted the amount is relatively low in comparison with other countries.

He called on stakeholders to take control of tourism activity on the island in order to grow the destination.

“We must position ourselves to explore new opportunities arising from regional and global trends and interest where we may have a competitive advantage,” he noted.

According to him, the tourism sector in Dominica can do a lot more for customers to have a much better experience and spend more money during their visits.

“If they spend more money in Dominica, it remains here for all of us to use at some stage or some point,” he explained.

A number of awards were presented during the ceremony.

Among the awardees was winner of the recently held annual Tourism Youth Congress, Emma Lehrer, who is now the Junior Tourism Minister.

Lehrer, a fourth former of the Orion Academy, will be among those representing Dominica at the Annual Caribbean Tourism Organization State of the Industry Conference to be held in Curacao from October 21st- 23rd.

Other awards were presented to students from three other schools who received placement at the Tourism Youth Congress.

They are Savahnn James of the Convent High School, who placed second, and Christelle Bannis of the Dominica Grammar School, who got the third place position.

An award was also given to the Convent Preparatory School, the winner of the Primary School Bin Painting Competition organized by the Discover Dominica Authority (DDA).

Tourism Awareness Month ran from May 1st to the 31st.

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48 Comments

  1. ATKINSON
    June 3, 2015

    This appears the be some fussy red labour math. So 343 millions dollars a year, divided by 365 days, that’s almost a million dollars per day. :mrgreen:

    • June 4, 2015

      By now Dominicans should know that the numbers been dished out is so full of holes you don’t need glasses to read it, in the first place the visitors are Dominicans who travel home, tourist made up a very small part of the numbers nothing to talk about because we all know they do not spend money because they don’t have every cent was put in the cruise .Check this out look at lunch time in the city the majority of the return to the boat to eat, and those on Island cruise or hiking is out there taking pictures, so ask yourself how much money they contribute to the economy , People do your home work and stop being seen as stupid and foolish you are all better than that.

  2. mandate 2 mismanage
    June 3, 2015

    One day, when we finally accept that corruption actually HURTS us as a nation, and that, like all other places in this world we need competent and trustworthy individuals at the helm…maybe our tourism report could sound something like St. Lucia’s:

    The tourism sector is estimated to have expanded by 5.7 percent, associated with increases in
    the number of stay-over visitors and cruise ship passengers. Stay-over arrivals grew by 3.9
    percent to a record 318,626 visitors. The number of cruise ship passengers increased by 3.9
    percent to 594,118.

    The performance of the stay-over segment of the industry was mainly the
    result of growth in arrivals from the US and Caribbean markets. Following two years of
    contraction, arrivals from the US expanded by 11.5 percent in 2013, supported by increases in
    airlift from some of the major US carriers such as Delta and Jet Blue.

    One day Dominica…one day!

  3. mandate 2 mismanage
    June 3, 2015

    While I’m using a calendar year with a fiscal year (so numbers will be slightly off) we know growth in Dominica was small (around 1% if that much) over the previous year, so the math below should be close.

    So Dominica’s 2013 GDP was about 1.3 billion EC$. By that measure tourist spending alone accounted for 25% of the GDP last year. That doesn’t even account for other revenue in tourism in the past year. Now, if an industry contributes to the GDP at this scale, one would expect MAJOR investments in said industry, no? Instead in last year’s budget address only 3.9% of the budget was allocated to tourism, while 27% went to the ministry of finance (PM’s office).

    For some reason we can’t find the funds to increase tourism marketing, clean up of our main town, activities for tourists, etc. But we see clearly what the supplementary budget required additional funds for…equipment for the PM office and Red clinic.

    Dominica…you are truly a special place. Untouched in…

  4. June 3, 2015

    This goes to show the brilliant foresight of our great and ordained Supreme Leader in moving the Country to an Agro-Tourism based economy. The millions of dollars worth of revenue that is now pouring into and circulating within the Island is testament to the Honourable Prime Minister’s Christ-like intelligence. Labourites are seeing more money in their pockets today than at any other time in our history. Our businesses are booming, we are buying brand new cars, buses and vans, building luxury homes and celebrating our faithfulness in the blessed Labour Party. The naysayers and critics in opposition are totally dumbfounded at the success of the Holy One, the Humble and Dignified, Sophisticated and Classy, Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit. They can’t understand how everything this great Leader touches turns to gold. Yet, every single thing they (the opposition) try to do ends in utter failure, i.e. the recent illegal riot in Salisbury. They will NEVER win an election in Dominica. NEVER!

    • faceup
      June 4, 2015

      Supreme leader OH LA ??? :lol:

  5. TSB
    June 3, 2015

    Some Dominicans are so blinded by negativity and political ideologies that they can’t even see that 343 million is a very small figure that will melt very quick even in a small country like ours. Furthermore, the cost in the tourism sector is very high and the 343 million is not profit so do the maths.

    • Moin meme
      June 3, 2015

      Oh please! the figures are misleading

    • King Skerrit
      June 3, 2015

      These figures lack context and I defy you show me where and how approx 31k tourists/visitors per month actually walked/drove through DCA spending approx $800 each. Just because a cruise ship docked in DCA for one day and it carried a whole lot of people does that mean they actually got off the ship. Stop allowing these guys to fool you.

      • TSB
        June 3, 2015

        Your “user name” is interesting though, proves part of my post… “Some Dominicans are so blinded by negativity and political ideologies…”

  6. Moin meme
    June 3, 2015

    WAIT! Mr. Tongue remember that the people of the Roseau belt have brains… hence their election choice, so it could be them you are talking to. Since we have brains – hence why we voted against you- who are these statistics targeted at?

    • Moin meme
      June 3, 2015

      correction: so it could NOT be them…

  7. Just Asking
    June 3, 2015

    Ok Mr. Tonge, Congrats! Now show us how all that money was spent when on many are crying that things are hard; BAM through the EU building roads, chineses building every thing in Dominica, I even heard gov’t hard to scrape money from tout pa tout to pay backpay ( seems like those friendly gov’t who were ready to give the PM the money bailed out on him at the last minutes); So, Mr. Tonge how tell us how all that money was spent?

  8. Not Me Alone
    June 3, 2015

    The man’s name is Mr. Tonge and most times our tongue slips and we say what we did not want to say. What I believe he really wanted to say is that foreigners and visitors to Dominica, left the island with $343-million in 2014. That would make sense when one takes into consideration the amount spent on , three-time Grammy Award winner and international gospel star, Donny McClurkin, Jamaican Reggae star Morgan Heritage, his friends from Barbados for printing manifest, Hartly Henry for advising him on everything, his bajan friend for polling and campaigning for him, that Charley stranger that entered the house of assembly, Spat Lee that sued them for ill treatment ad the other secret deals that we don’t know about. That’s what he meant to tell us but Mr. Tonge, tongue got twisted.

  9. June 3, 2015

    Such a huge number ,when people are still up to this day removing their shoes to cross a river in some villages especially in the south part of the island,water is the most important thing in every day life ,many people don’t have access to running water because they cannot afford it while dominica is decorated morelessly with 365 rivers,lakes,streams and waterfalls?Politician’s salaries are increasing each year while others don’t have the right to demonstrate for a better life….dominicans that are voting stop being stupid,opens you eyes while you can see to make a change and put these money grabbers out of position…
    Most important travellers are suffocating with the low roof at the new harbour in roseau ,that building was badly done,it looks like no one in dominica is inspecting building plans before things are done.

  10. I Am ME
    June 3, 2015

    These guys are all a bunch of liars and impressionists that makes it very difficult for me to believe a thing they say. $343-million? Stop your tongue to fabricate story Mr. Tonge!!! OH! Maybe you referring to Jamaican dollars; but then again I still do not believe that figure no matter what currency you talking about

  11. One Dollar A Year
    June 3, 2015

    The figure is actually correct. It is an estimate put out annually by the Central Statistics Office. In real terms it means nothing… if it has not translated to new job creation and investments in tourism sector…

    There may be a decline in visitor arrivals for the first quarte r(January, February, March) of 2015 in stayover arrivals, cruise passenger arrivals, and yacht passenger arrials. Can DNO follow up with the DDA on that.

  12. Love All
    June 2, 2015

    If have a business and in one day I make $300.00 that doesn’t mean that money is mine i have to replace the items I sold pay all other over heads then I can really think of how much of that money is mine. If that figure was in agriculture it would be painting a better picture. But tourism most of that money the monies collected were on import goods. Therefore by making a statement like that doesn’t give any picture of how much money Dominica made from tourism.

  13. AAAA
    June 2, 2015

    That’s a big lie. The 343 million dollars that was spent in Dominica was either Afgani dollars or Sudanese pound. One thing that I know it’s not EC currency . Trust me I worked in that department I know the truth.

    • The Real Facts
      June 2, 2015

      If you are employed in that department, are you not supposed to keep this confidential?

    • Johnny
      June 2, 2015

      how are we supposed to believe you?

      • joking
        June 3, 2015

        believe like you believe Jesus to come back

    • anonymous2
      June 3, 2015

      I believe you. I wonder what Mr. Tonge was assessing that added up to that much……..the plane tickets, the lodging, the restaurants? Or was it the people buying land here? If tourists were spending that much DA would be rich and we know that that isn’t the case……..unless the money went into certain peoples’ pockets.

    • June 3, 2015

      Tell us the truth using the numbers not talk. Many people including me would like to know what the real numbers are if the numbers presented are not correct.

  14. REAL!!!!
    June 2, 2015

    Mr. Tongue your report is questionable as the stay-over tourist arrival is 223people a day on average in DA.
    The only time DA show these number per day I may agree would be creole Festival and Carnival. When you combine the activities the amount of days is a month.

    Therefore one need to ask what other events are driving these 233 stay-over arrivals a day for the rest of the days remaining in the year.

    Are you counting the Ross Student as Tourist and local Dominicans travel on business/vacation returning to the country????

  15. KoKo Naughts
    June 2, 2015

    DNO next time get a picture with a larger crowd with a pachay rentals in the background to make that “shocking” $300 mil seem feasible eh. But yet again when I was in Dca I spend a change up in Possie eh… Yah, well worth it. :)

  16. UserName
    June 2, 2015

    Lets do math to have a laugh……. “Tonge also stated that in 2014 Dominica received 81,472 stay-over visitors, 286,573 cruise passengers, 2,195 same day visitors or excursionists and 12,134 yacht visitors = 382,374 total visitors. He further revealed that VISITORS to Dominica spent a total on $343-million in 2014..lol… a joke that man. for argument sake.. 382,374 TOTAL VISITORS DIVIDED BY $343 MILLION (343,000,000/382,374 = $897.03… Now when we look at the figure from that angle its not very well is it. A mere and meager EC$897 dollars…. tourism.. and we expect to see the circulation of that amount of money in the local economy on a sustained basis. TOURISM …I planting agriculture and anything that has a 4 syllable rhythm everyday and selling that instead.

    • Shaka zulu
      June 3, 2015

      Did the same as you. Have you noticed anytime this government put out figures something is always wrong. Reminds me of the PMs travel records and expenditures put out a year ago. Lord have mercy on us. Stupidity and ignorance should be a cardinal sin.

  17. June 2, 2015

    I mean seriously ? And the vendors in market and bus drivers were complaining things were hard , even PM said sometime ago that tourists are not spending on island which means the tourism industry is not profitable . I mean , let’s be logical ; we have an industry contributing this amount to the economy and thus the state of our sites these spending tourists visit every season ? Mr Minister tonge , I mean man , I know many of our Dcan people are fooled , but I really don’t see it . Only the government sees what you spoke of , the vendors and drivers say it differently .

  18. kalinago
    June 2, 2015

    Think them man have good head, I often wonder. All that money where have it gone, not in the economy of Dominica. Only if is the companies that is making all the money and not reinvesting it.

  19. Ackroyd
    June 2, 2015

    It is satisfying that we have these figures to report. It would have been more informative if we had comparisons to last season’s figures. Then we could have a civil discussion.

    There are two types of tourist: the internal (local) tourist and the external tourist. I note that we continually speak about the external tourist and little, if any, about our local tourist. We may position ourselves to take advantage of regional and international tourism, however, if we are unable to be hospitable to the local tourist, how do we transfer the genuine accommodation to the external tourist?

    When we are recptive, cordial and welcoming to our locals, that same warmth flows effortlessly to our external tourist.

  20. too late
    June 2, 2015

    over 300 million? and up to now we cannot buld anything of our own? everything is Chinese and Venezuela? even yes we care, cooking gas. NEP, all that is Venezuela. OHHHHH maybe it go in Red Clinic

  21. %
    June 2, 2015

    I would not be surprised that relative to the other OECS countries, this was the lowest

  22. lucy
    June 2, 2015

    Never happen sa. And everybody’s sales are down. Maybe 3 million.

  23. Francisco Telemaque
    June 2, 2015

    You see, for that to happen just about everyone who visited the country during that period, would have to spend the precise amount of money of which the probability is not likely, though not altogether impossible.

    I do not know how he calculated his thing, however, if we had 382,374 visitors, and made $343,000,000.00 dollars; Hence: $343,000,000.00/382374 = $897.02 cents. That would have to happen each time a vessel visits, and when the one day visits, those who overnight for the duration would have to spend no more than eight hundred ninety-seven dollars and two cents. How possible is that?

    I know I am dunce, and doh know much, I wish some could do some calculations and correct me if I am wrong! But that is the garbage, and lies the Labor Party, and their clones indulge into believing they can fool the world with garbage like that!

    • point
      June 2, 2015

      I am not in a position to verify the numbers. But the 897.02 is an average. Some visitotrs could have spent more others less.

    • Zandoli
      June 2, 2015

      Francisco
      I was in Dominica for 10 days last year and during tat time I dropped $4000. So if someone spent less, that may average out to $890. I am sure there are bigger spenders than me and there are some people who spend less.

      • Francisco Telemaque
        June 3, 2015

        That is besides the point: The man made a closed statement; and produced statistics to support his claims, the argument is based on the figures he gave with absolutely no variables! And for those who do not know what is a variable; note: it is anything which makes a difference!

        He left no space, or room for any variable, the four ($4,000.00) thousand dollars you spent is not included in the garbage he spoke.

        No matter how we look at it; as it stands it simply does not make any sense, he lied!

      • fromforeign
        June 4, 2015

        That’s certainly a possibility. The number is an average. Lots of people visited the island for various reasons including weddings, carnival, creole fest, or spa retreats. Whether they stayed over at Secret Bay or the low cost travel inn is not the main aim of his statement. Just the overall trend is given here. If D/cans want further analysis then maybe an annual report by the Tourism department could be released to the public. This could be of use for persons trying to enter the industry to see where the growth is being generated. Governments all over the world publish general trends as well.

  24. AA
    June 2, 2015

    Well these figures are listed on the CTO website showing a 4.1% increase in arrivals for 2014 on stay overs. Hope that was real stay overs and not the voters that was brought in that was counted as stay overs. I notice for the first quarter there was negligible growth in the stay over and a 14% decline in cruise.

    I am also interested in what constitute stay overs. there are on average 6 flights into DOM on a daily basis and base on the stay overs, on average some 232 persons have to come in on a daily basis. now certain times of the year you cannot fly in because of ROSS students (i hope these are not classified as tourist) are either coming in or leaving the island. how do you bring in these amount of people when on average between 5 to 30 persons get off the flight.

    these figures needs to be contextualized and put into perspective

    • Francisco Telemaque
      June 2, 2015

      “Well these figures are listed on the CTO website showing a 4.1% increase”

      I do not care on who’s or what website you read that crap, if it is one thing that is not easy manipulated is mathematics, or simple arithmetic. Where it pertains to math, you either get it right or wrong; there is no in between. And as far as I calculated the man talking that crap is out of his mind!

      The idea that there is 4.1% increase what is that suppose to mean, 4.1 percent of what? Dominica looks like a place where anything economic can grow by 4.1% ?

  25. Rocks
    June 2, 2015

    What currency are these figures bieng reported in, $US or $EC?

    • forreal
      June 2, 2015

      this would have to be like a hundred million or more in US currency or less to convert into five hundred million EC right?

    • One Dollar A Year
      June 3, 2015

      BITCOINS… We have plenty in circulation man :lol: :lol: :lol:

  26. King Skerrit
    June 2, 2015

    Robby garcon- you all must stop bobol people. All of that money circulate on island last year? Voodoo Economics :lol: :lol: 8-O

  27. Cyrique
    June 2, 2015

    This is fantastic news for our economy. Keep them coming!!

  28. DA Citizen
    June 2, 2015

    These figures can’t stand on their own. Mr. Minister, please put some context around them and let us know what percentage increase/decrease those represent. And what plans are being put in place to increase those figures next year. Can you name some of those new opportunities that can give us an advantage? What exactly are the strategies that will “do a lot more for customers to have a much better experience and spend more money during their visits.”. This is all generalization without specifics. Need more detail.

  29. original hold dem
    June 2, 2015

    robby how did you arrive at that figure, and if so i really cant see the change

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