The US Virgin Islands Is More Popular Than Ever, Buoyed By New St Thomas and St Croix Flights

Travelers are making a beeline for one particular destination in the Caribbean right now: the US Virgin Islands, which continues to shine in the post-pandemic period with blazing tourist arrival numbers, Caribbean Journal has learned. 

The US Virgin Islands is projecting a 24 percent increase in airlift arrivals this year compared to 2023, officials revealed this week. 

That’s a conservative estimate, though: actual arrivals in the first quarter of 2024 were actually up 26.5 percent over the same period last year. 

While the USVI has a very strong home sharing economy sector, hotel occupancy has also been strong, with a 12.4 percent jump so far this year, and hotel tax revenues up by 24 percent. 

The growth has been driven by several factors, from creative, targeted marketing (like the destination’s innovative sports marketing partnerships) to a cumulative effect from its strong performance since Covid. 

But the biggest thing has been airlift, with new flights all over the territory. 

That includes St Croix, which just welcomed new Frontier Airlines flights from San Juan this summer, and will soon receive flights on a similar route from JetBlue in December. 

For St Thomas, the story is similar, with more flights on American, Delta, United Spirit, Sun Country, JetBlue and Frontier, all of which have added more weekly flights to the island this year.