Tourism arrival figures for the first quarter of 2019 continue on the positive trend which started in the last three months of 2018. The 23,444 stay-over arrivals recorded for January to March this year, not only exceed 2018 arrivals as expected, but also surpass visitor arrivals recorded during the same period in 2017.
This year’s numbers show an 87.5% increase over Q 1 of 2018 where stay-over arrivals were understandably low at 12,505, some six months after the passage of Hurricane Maria. More significant is the fact that this year’s figures represent an increase of 11.2 % over 2017 figures for the same period, or an additional 2,360 visitors.
This second consecutive quarter of growth, continues on the upward growth registered in Q4 of 2018 which registered a 0.9 % increase over the same period in 2016, which showed pre-Hurricane Maria activity.
The month of March has had the best performance so far for 2019 with 9,738 stay-over arrivals. This represents a 110% improvement over same period 2018 (5717) and a 70% improvement over same period 2017. The arrivals were primarily influenced by arrivals in the week leading up to Carnival which accounted for 53% of March arrivals. Arrivals in January and February were 6,030 and 7,676 respectively.
All major sources markets show increase over 2018 figures, while three showed increases over the same period in 2017, which represents the base year for purpose of reasonable comparison.
The greatest growth in the quarter when compared to 2017, was registered by visitors from the Commonwealth Caribbean with an increase in arrivals of 38.1% with a total of 3,355 arrivals. Visitation from the French West Indies showed an 11.5% increase with 3,810 arrivals and France a 3.6% increase with 2,398 arrivals.
Access by air accounted for 60% of all arrivals in Q1 which is down some 6% on pre Maria levels. 76% of stay-over arrivals indicated vacation as their purpose of visit which is slightly above the pre-Maria figures of 70%.
Can we have an update on all the hotel developments where the government ‘invested’ our CBI money: Sam, Nassief, McIntyre and Allick. What percentage shareholders is the state of Dominica in each of these developments. We demand transparency!!
Hotel occupancy rates, statistics on tour and craft revenue, and other spill over revenue would be vital to support this article. Do the stats refer to Dominican Diaspora visiting for Carnival or the St Lucia, Martinique and Guadeloupe residents visiting for Carnival for two days via the ferry? Give us a bit more to understand the total spill over of the increase in stay over.
I have a hard time understanding all of what ‘s written above. If I leave North America at 8:30 am and reach my transfer point at 1:30 pm, why do I have to wait until the next morning to reach Dominica? Something is really wrong with this picture. Why is it that there is a regional airline that time after time does not accommodate passengers arriving from North America namely “Canada”? Please help me understand what is wrong here. After paying close to $1,000.00 for a ticket, I must spend more money to overnight at a hotel / bed and breakfast? Hello!!!
Just shows that any publicity is good publicity. Hurricane Maria showed a bunch of people ‘Dominica’, some of them for the first time! The UN meetings, the fundraisers from different diasporans, the Ross University debacle, the whole nine yards. Curiosity being raised, Google searches being done, it’s not surprising to see a surge in visitors just heading to see what this ‘Dominica’ is all about. We now need to capitalize on this, market Dominica as the paradise it is, and improve are access. Build an International Airport. Do not care if the initial airport building is a two-by-four structure or even tents as Saint Maarten I was using for some time after their storm. Subsidize a few big airlines to woo them into landing in Dominica, incentivize big investors to build hotels. Once the process is started, there is no turning back. Dominic’s economy would literally blow up. People need to stop thinking small and think big. Think future!! Demand this of your leaders!!! One love
DDA says 2019 “stay-over arrivals indicate continued recovery” Stop lying and deceiving the people. We all know stay- over arrivals have dropped significantly! I don’t care the numbers you all put because we know people like that Christian feller and that Mills can change any # to mislead the people. Airport workers, Port workers, taxi drivers are the best ones to tell you how bad things are because they see it first hand. In the first place Skerrit got rid of Ross University that use to bring at least 500 stay over visitors here each month. We see less cruise ships coming, less planes, except for maybe 500 Haitians that come in a week but by next day or so they go to Guada or Martinique. So really though the Haitians might overnight here, depending on the time of their arrival because if they get here by 10am they are gone by 10pm that same day. Dominica is just their transit point and therefore they should not be seen as stay-over arrivals. Everything in DA is a BIG FAILURE now
DNO could you please identify the location of the place in your header . Thanks
ADMIN: This is Secret Bay.
In 2017 visitor numbers were still being adversely affected by the aftermath of Tropical Storm Erika and therefore a comparison with that year is misleading. A comparison with 2015, pre-Erika, would be more informative. It would also be good to know just how much money DDA has spent on destination marketing and what it has spent the money on – these facts are never published. How does the Dominica taxpayer and members of the tourism sector know that the DDA is providing value for money and showing a real return? The reality is that year-on-year (disasters aside) stay-over numbers have flat-lined and the DDA has been entirely ineffective. This is hardly surprising when you consider that they don’t understand their product – they don’t hike, they don’t scuba dive or snorkel, they don’t get out and explore the island, they are simply not interested in the outdoors – they sit in an office all week and take home an easy salary. It is beyond time for a change because this is money…
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Where are the statistics of hotel occupancy during the same period? If you can’t provide this then it can be deduced that these are ordinary Dominicans visiting their families. Don’t try to sell good news when there isn’t.