St Vin­cent and the Grenadines has record­ed a 25 per cent in­crease in vis­i­tor ar­rivals in 2024, as a re­sult of the open­ing of the Caribbean brand, San­dals, in the des­ti­na­tion.

In a news re­lease yes­ter­day, San­dals said, “For the first time in the coun­try’s his­to­ry, stay­over ar­rivals sur­passed 100,000, reach­ing an im­pres­sive 101,471 vis­i­tors by De­cem­ber 2024. This surge marks a trans­for­ma­tive eco­nom­ic boom for the mul­ti-is­land state, dri­ving job cre­ation and boost­ing air­lift ca­pac­i­ty.”

Caribbean Jour­nal not­ed that the de­but of San­dals St Vin­cent and the Grenadines is wide­ly seen as the cat­a­lyst for this growth, sig­nif­i­cant­ly rais­ing the coun­try’s pro­file on the glob­al trav­el stage. In its Jan­u­ary 16 pub­li­ca­tion, Caribbean Jour­nal not­ed that this was just one day af­ter St Vin­cent’s Min­is­ter of Tourism, Car­los James, an­nounced the record-break­ing fig­ures.

“It’s be­ing de­scribed as the ‘San­dals Ef­fect,’ a phe­nom­e­non ob­served in the Caribbean des­ti­na­tions where San­dals Re­sorts has es­tab­lished a pres­ence. The term refers to the pos­i­tive rip­ple ef­fects the re­sort brand brings to a des­ti­na­tion, in­clud­ing in­creased tourism, an em­ploy­ment boom, com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment, and ad­di­tion­al air­lift.’

“A strate­gic part­ner­ship be­tween San­dals and Jet­Blue Air­ways led to the launch of a ma­jor New York–St Vin­cent route, di­rect­ly sup­port­ing the re­sort’s op­er­a­tions and pro­vid­ing a clear ex­am­ple of the ‘San­dals Ef­fect’ in ac­tion,” the re­lease fur­ther stat­ed.

It not­ed be­yond the re­sort, the ben­e­fits ex­tend to lo­cal busi­ness­es such as tour op­er­a­tors, taxi dri­vers, restau­rants, farm­ers, fish­er­folk, and en­tre­pre­neurs, all of whom ex­pe­ri­ence a sig­nif­i­cant boost.

Min­is­ter of Tourism Car­los James said at a news con­fer­ence last week that this boost in tourism marks a sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ment for the mul­ti-is­land state, which has ex­pe­ri­enced the high­est av­er­age growth in stay­over ar­rivals across the Caribbean.

James in­di­cat­ed that the per­for­mance is due to sev­er­al key fac­tors, in­clud­ing en­hanced air­lift with the ad­di­tion of four new car­ri­ers in the fi­nal quar­ter of 2024, growth in the yacht­ing and cruise sec­tors, and an in­crease in ho­tel de­vel­op­ments.