St Vincent and the Grenadines Just Broke a Tourism Record, Buoyed by the “Sandals Effect”

It’s one of the most remarkable stories of the year in Caribbean tourism: St Vincent and the Grenadines’ record-breaking 2024, in spite of the crippling storms in July. 

Indeed, the southern Caribbean archipelago saw a 25 percent increase in stayover arrivals last year, compared to 2023 — and a 39 perfect improvement over 2019, before the onset of the pandemic. 

Stayover arrivals topped 100,000 for the first time ever, with a total of 101,471 stayover visitors by December. 

So what’s the reason for all of the destination’s growth? It’s not really a surprise: it was the spring debut of the new Sandals St Vincent and the Grenadines, whose opening single-handedly put the twin-island destination on the travel map in a new way. 

For years, visitors largely skipped over St Vincent, choosing boutique hotels in smaller islands like Bequia, Mustique and Canouan. 

But the debut of the 301-room resort (one that includes a collection of overwater villas) was a jolt of energy into the destination, one that attracted a wave of new flights and gave it unprecedented exposure.

The new airlift included a major route from New York on JetBlue, one that simply would never have occurred without the entry of Sandals to the market. 

We’ve called it the “Sandals Effect,” and it’s something that’s been apparent in a number of destinations where the resort company entered for the first time, from Curacao to Grenada. 

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