Antigua and Barbuda records 5% increase in air arrivals in January 2024

Antigua and Barbuda witnessed a five percent increase in tourist arrivals by air in January 2024 as compared to the same period in 2019, which was regarded as the best year on record for tourist arrivals.

The Government of the twin-island nation is hailing this achievement as a huge milestone and is looking forward to welcoming more visitors throughout this year.

According to the data and the latest figures released by the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Association, the total arrivals for January 2024 were 31,306 which was up from 29,669 in January 2019.

In addition to this, the United States has maintained its position as the top source market for arrivals with 14606 passengers as compared to 2019 figures which showed 11,722 visitor arrivals from US.

The data also showed that the United Kingdom visitors followed the US with 7955 visitors as compared to 7681 in 2019, while the Canadian market ranked 3rd with 4525 visitors in the same period as compared to 5752 in 2019.

The ABHTA also announced that while occupancy rates for the same period were slightly low as compared to January 2019, with a rate of 85.5 percent as compared to 86.5 percent, the numbers were higher than 2023’s 86.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the majority of overnight visitors opted to stay in hotels, accounting for 69% of the market, with guest houses and homes coming in 2nd and 3rd position, respectively.

This shows that visitors are more likely to choose to stay in hotels during their vacation in Antigua and Barbuda.

It is also to be noted that the twin island nation is also witnessing a thriving cruise season. January was the busiest month for the 2023/ 2024 winter season with over 130,000 passenger arrivals. [caption id="attachment_70429" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Cruises docked in Antigua (PC - Facebook)[/caption] Tourism figures in 2023 Meanwhile, in the first nine months of 2023, Antigua and Barbuda saw a 9.9% increase in the number of stopover visitors, growing from 189,686 visitors in 2022 to 208,511 visitors in the same nine months of this year.

The number of stopovers from the USA increased by 9.2%, growing from 94,283 visitors during the first nine months of 2022 to 102,959 in the same nine months of 2023. The number of stopovers from the UK declined by 16.0% during the first nine months, falling from 58,653 in 2022 to 49,292 in the same nine months of 2023.

In the first six months of 2023, Antigua and Barbuda received 409,209 cruise passengers, 115.8% more than the 189,587 cruise visitors brought in the same six months of 2022.