Barbados Tourism Achieves Remarkable Growth in 2024, Surpassing Pre-Pandemic Figures

Barbados’ tourism recorded a sterling performance in 2024, with figures exceeding those of the record year of 2019.

This was revealed by chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Javon Griffith yesterday during the BHTA’s first quarterly media briefing for the year.

He said Barbados’ three main source markets – the United Kingdom (UK), United States (US) and Canada – had “all surpassed their previous performance levels from the record-setting year of 2019”, accounting for a significant number of the 704 340 stay-over visitor arrivals in 2024.

The US exceeded its 2019 benchmark of 219 769 stay-over visitors, the UK out-performed its record number of 226 999 visitor arrivals in 2019, and Canada also surpassed its 2019 figure of 81 577.

Cruise tourism, which the BHTA chair said was experiencing “strong momentum”, saw 816 400 arrivals in 2024, representing a 24 per cent increase over the 655 806 of the previous year.

Griffith credited Minister of Tourism and International Transport Ian Gooding-Edghill, along with the team at the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc., for the work done to drive business to Barbados, and particularly for the significant airlift last year.

“The island continues to expand its air travel options to strengthen its appeal as a destination,” he noted.

While he anticipated “seasonal” reductions in flight capacity particularly from European carriers as the 2024/2025 winter season winds down, Griffith was upbeat that British Airways and Virgin Atlantic will each be adding three flights per week from Heathrow, London, in April and that the key Manchester gateway “will remain connected to Barbados via Aer Lingus, through May”.

He was very optimistic about the tourism performance in 2025, saying it “remains highly positive”.

“Our accommodation members continue to perform well, with in-house data as of February 15, 2025, showing average occupancy rates as high as 81 per cent, while many individual hotels were reporting occupancy levels in the high 90s.

“Several hotel developments are under way, including the Pendry Hotel, Royalton Chic and Hyatt ZIVA, with the Blue Monkey Hotel and Hotel Indigo expected to be fully operational this year. These should provide the room complement needed to support the expected increase in airlift.”

Summer bookings are also gaining momentum with post-winter occupancy already averaging above data, based on submissions from 48 BHTA hotel members across all categories, Griffith stated.

We Gatherin’ celebrations, with an anticipated increase in arrivals from the diaspora, particularly around Crop Over, as well as a West Indies and Australia Test match at

Kensington Oval in June, were expected to give a strong boost to the summer season, he noted. (GC)