From St Thomas to St Croix, US Virgin Islands Travel Is Hotter Than Ever
The food scene in Christiansted. The new-look downtown in Charlotte Amalie. The stunning villas in St John. The sand on Buck Island. The festivals, well, everywhere. The US Virgin Islands has been leading the Caribbean travel renaissance, and now the destination has broken yet another record.
The territory’s two main airports, Cyril E. King in St Thomas and Henry E. Rohlsen in St Croix welcomed 932,265 passengers last year — a new record for the USVI and over 100,000 passengers more than the previous record set during the pandemic.
That represented a 16.5 percent increase over 2023, one of the fastest tourism growth rates in the Caribbean right now.
“As a destination, we continue to explore, elevate, and improve, which further supports the ongoing goal to build upon our commitment to be a premier Caribbean destination,” USVI Tourism Commissioner Joseph Boschulte, whose innovative strategies have helped steward the USVI toward this growth, said in a statement provided to Caribbean Journal.
The USVI also had another strong year for cruise, with over 1.77 million passenger arrivals and a 9.8 percent jump over 2023 — with a number of inaugural visits on brands like Virgin Voyages, Disney, Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean, among others.
If you’ve been following the Caribbean in recent years, it’s not a surprise — the USVI has been seeing dramatic growth in new flights for most of the last half decade, and has been cultivating a new brand image across the all-important US market — with some new strategies that include some clever cross-partnerships with sports teams like the Boston Red Sox and New York Jets, among others.
Are you planning to a vacation to the USVI right now?
The destination’s hotels have never been better, from the new Pink Palm boutique hotel (rooms from $305) to cool boutique options like The Fred in fast-developing Frederiksted.
That’s along with the return of St Thomas’ largest hotel, the Frenchman’s Reef, which is comprised of two hotels: the Westin Beach Resort (rooms from $914 per night) and the right-on-the-sand Buoy Haus, which has rooms for $1,249 right now.
We really liked both of those resorts when we recently stayed at the property (particularly the Buoy Haus for its toes-in-the-sand vibe), and they’re just a slice of the increasingly diversifying hotel product you can find in the USVI (including the lovely private-island destination, the Lovango Resort, which has been getting rave reviews in its unique setting just off the coast of St John. Rooms from $1,195.
As we said, it’s never been easier to fly to the USVI (including a new connection to St Croix on JetBlue). If you’re flying to St Thomas, you can find numerous options at Google Flights.
