Total tourist expenditure for 2010 did not keep pace with the 13 percent increase in arrivals last year, with expenditure growing 2 percent to a projected $2.069 billion, according to a ministry official.
Tourist expenditure for 2009 was $2.027 billion on arrivals of 4.65 million. With 5.25 million visitors in 2010 the numbers suggest an average spend decline of 9.7 percent, from $436.37 in 2009 to $394.24 in 2010. But that average spend is not calculated on numbers that discriminate between stopover visitors and cruise passengers – leaving the true story of tourist expenditure untold, according to Minister of Tourism Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace.
Stopover visitors spent an average of $1,230 in 2009, excluding spending on gambling. The year 2010 saw a sharp increase in cruise passengers, up 14 percent to 3.8 million, as stopovers increased 3 percent to 1.4 million. The considerable increase in cruise passengers would result in a heavier weighting to the group, which spends considerably less, exaggerating the impact on the ‘average spend’ calculation. A statistician explained that for every dollar spent by a cruise passenger about $9 is spent by a stopover visitor.
