by Eulana Weekes
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Minister of Tourism, The Honourable Lindsay Grant, gave a comprehensive overview of the island’s Tourism Sector amidst the Coronavirus Pandemic yesterday.
Minister Grant said “over the past few months, we have made great strides in our rebuilding efforts with the return of our major air carriers and cruise line partners. Although our phased approach to rebuilding the sector attracted some scepticism, it did prove to be successful in building confidence from our trade partners and our potential visitors.
The implementation of health and safety protocols, and the nation’s successful vaccination rollout, which have resulted in the vaccination of some 81.5 percent of our adult target population, have been critical to our efforts. Removing the quarantine for fully vaccinated passengers arriving by air and re-introducing free flow for fully vaccinated cruise passengers on Saturday, December 11, placed the destination in a more competitive space and encouraged travellers to our beautiful shores.”
American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta, British Airways, Seabourne and Air Canada have all resumed operations. Here in the region, LIAT and Winair have also resumed air services.
Based on the data for December 2021, it was revealed that December was a very strong month for the North American carriers, which brought 5,389 passengers or 77.3 percent of total arrivals.
Meanwhile, The Cruise season officially opened on November 1, 2021. Grant confirmed that St.Kitts welcomed 7 inaugural calls to date; revealing that, for the period November 1 – December 31 2021, a total of 99 339 cruise passengers arrived on island from a total of 98 cruise calls. As for the 2022 scheduled cruise calls, 72 are expected in January, while 62 are expected in February.
