Visitor arrivals down for first half of 2011

~ North America down almost 10 per cent ~

PHILIPSBURG--Visitor arrivals for the first half of 2011, January to June, declined by six per cent compared to the same period in 2010. Arrivals from St. Maarten's main source markets Canada and the US saw a 9.3 per cent decline for the first six months of this year, from 158,008 in 2010 to 143,313 in 2011.

The figures basically confirm what local tourism industry partners, in particular the hotel sector, have been saying about arrivals based on their poor occupancy figures for the first half of 2011.

The combined hotel and timeshare half year occupancy figures for 2011 show a decline in every month compared to the same period of 2010. For the first six months of the year, timeshare occupancy is down 6.1 per cent, from 75.8 per cent in 2010 to 69.7 per cent in 2011.

The island's hotels experienced declines in occupancy in all but one month, April, for the first six months of the year. Hotel occupancy from January to June declined 5.8 per cent, from 58.1 per cent in 2010 to 52.3 per cent in 2011.

Arrivals from the Caribbean showed almost no growth for the first six months of 2011 (0.1 per cent), while arrivals from Europe declined 1.6 per cent, Dutch Caribbean arrivals declined 8.7 per cent and the "rest of the world" declined 2.2 percent.

The only increase recorded for the first half of 2011 was from South America, which grew 35.3 per cent, from 6,758 in 2010 to 9, 141 in 2011. The majority of those visitors were from Brazil.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/21619-visitor-arrivals-down-for-first-half-of-2011.html

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