The Turks and Caicos Islands continue to capture the hearts of travellers, sealing its reputation as the top premium class destination in the Caribbean.
The month of May saw an impressive 64,727* air arrivals. This brings the total number of visitors to 336,053 for the year so far, marking a 10.85 percent increase from January to May 2023. March stood out as the peak month, welcoming a record-breaking 77,559 visitors.
Minister of Tourism, the Hon Josephine Connolly, said she is pleased with the growth that seals the Turks and Caicos Islands as the top luxury destination in the Caribbean.
“The Turks and Caicos Islands continue to dominate the luxury market in the region and I am proud of the increase in visitation as this augurs well for the businesses that serve the industry. Our mission is to ensure that everyone benefits from the tourism industry across all the islands and we are trending in the right direction. As our SMART Destination Marketing and Management Organisation, Experience Turks and Caicos, puts more emphasis on data to guide its strategies, we are seeing areas to enhance our marketing and develop our emerging markets,” the Minister said.
The relationship between the Turks and Caicos Islands and the United States continues to be strong with air capacity from that market to the destination increasing 31 percent for the first nine months of 2024, compared to the previous year. Load-factors are currently highest between May to August, with a dip forecasted for September.
Among the markets in the US with the highest load factors are New York, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Charlotte, and Fort Lauderdale. Smaller cities without direct flights have also posted growth, highlighting the appeal Turks and Caicos Islands has even among origin markets which require a layover to reach the destination.
The United States also lead in searches for the Turks and Caicos Islands. Search volumes from the USA have been ramping up. There were 10.84 million searches from the USA, an increase of 14 percent over 2023. There has also been increasing interest from Canada, as this market has finally surpassed 2023 search volumes for the year-to-date with 1.8 million searches so far.
The Statistics Authority said the recorded total of cruise passenger arrivals for Q1 2024 was 266,353, a notable decrease of 6.5 percent, when compared to the previous year Q1 2023, which recorded 284,745 cruise ship passenger arrivals.
The Authority highlights, however, that in January 2024, there were 86,768 cruise ship passenger arrivals, higher than the average for January between 2015 and 2023 (average: 74,387.3 passengers). February 2024 saw 78,293 cruise passengers, again higher than the average for February from 2015 to 2023 (average: 76,572.3 passengers). March 2024 documented a significant increase in cruise ship passenger arrivals to 101,292. This was not only higher than the average for March from 2015 to 2023 (average: 71,753.9 passengers), but also a 1.1 percent increase from the 100,147 documented in the previous year, March of 2023.