~~Adz:Left~~ Basseterre, St. Kitts June 5th, 2007 --While some express disappointment with the impact of the recently held Cricket World Cup games in the Caribbean, St. Kitts on the other hand shares a different view.
The St. Kitts Tourism Authority has attributed an 11% increase in tourism stay over arrival figures for March 2007 to the hosting of Cricket World Cup. According to the Tourism Authority, 15,781 stay over visitors arrived in the Federation during March this year, which was 1,565 more than in the same month last year. This followed a decline in stay over arrivals of 8% in January and 5% in February.
In commenting on the growth in March figures, Tourism Authority CEO, Christine Walwyn, stated that, "The hosting of the ICC World Cup Cricket clearly had a positive impact by bringing more visitors to our Federation during the month of March. Unofficial hotel occupancy figures have already reflected this fact and now it has been verified by air arrival estimates which have come to hand from the Ministry of Sustainable Development." Ms Walwyn noted that the March increase came at a crucial time when there had been a softening of stay over arrivals across the region for the first two months of the year.
Further, according to Ms Walwyn, hotel room rates were up by an average of more than 50% in March, which was communicated into a marked increase in the income yields. "For example, one local hotelier has described March 2007 as the best March performance in his hotel's history", the CEO said. ~~Adz:Right~~
"Visitors in March also stayed longer than usual because of the nature of their visit and this should have equated to more room nights and higher per capita expenditure. However, the biggest impact on our Tourism was the thousands of World Cup television viewers who became aware of our destination for the first time".
Walwyn said the decline in stay over arrivals for January and February is being attributed to three main factors:
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The January start up of the new requirement for all Americans to have a passport in order to re-enter the USA by air.
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Aggressive competition in the Meetings and Incentive market from Cancun and Aruba. The largest hotel in the Federation, Marriott, depends heavily on this market to drive its occupancy.
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Relatively mild weather conditions in the north east USA during last winter.
Arrivals from the USA normally represent about 60% of total stay over tourists in the Federation.
According to Ms Walwyn, the St Kitts Tourism Authority had been undertaking an intensive and focused marketing program in the US market in an attempt to hold market share in what is expected to be a very challenging year, and had launched an unprecedented aggressive advertising campaign in the United Kingdom since last year to try to grow summer arrivals from the UK this year.
The St. Kitts Tourism Authority was established to undertake the promotion and development of the destination and to also provide for related matters (www.stkitts-tourism.kn).
