Saint Lucia recorded a total of 432,500 tourists in 2020, ranking 135th in the world in absolute terms.
That smaller countries regularly perform lower in a comparison of the absolute number of guests, is obvious. By putting the tourist numbers in relation to the population of Saint Lucia, the result is much more comparable picture: With 2.4 tourists per resident, Saint Lucia ranked 24th in the world. In Caribbean, it ranked 13th.
In 2018, Saint Lucia generated around 989.00 million US dollars in the tourism sector alone. This corresponds to 58.48 percent of its the gross domestic product and approximately 3 percent of all international tourism receipts in Caribbean.
On average, each of the tourists arriving in 2018 spent about 718 US dollars.
Development of the tourism sector in Saint Lucia from 1995 to 2020
The following chart shows the number of tourist arrivals registered in Saint Lucia each year. Anyone who spends at least one night in the country but does not live there for more than 12 months is considered a tourist. Insofar as the survey included the purpose of the trip, business trips and other non-tourism travel purposes have already been excluded. The number of people passing through within the same day, and e.g., crew members of ships or flights are also not considered tourists in most countries. If the same person travels in and out more than once within the same year, each visit counts again.
The red line represents the average of all 21 countries in Caribbean.
Revenues from tourism
In 1995, tourism revenues amounted to 230.00 million USD, or about 30.15 percent of the gross national product. This corresponded to about 407,000 tourists at that time and roughly 565 USD per person. Within 23 years, the country's dependence on tourism has increased noticeably. Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, sales were $989.00 million billion, 48.08 percent of gross national product. Thus, each visitor spent an average of $849 on their vacation in Saint Lucia.
Full figures for 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, are not currently available. However, national and international travel has been restricted worldwide, and some countries have even been closed off from the outside world altogether. Dramatic revenue losses are expected, with some countries experiencing losses of up to more than 80%.
All data for Saint Lucia in detail
Year
Number of tourists
Receipts
% of GNP
Receipts per tourist
2020
432,500
2019
1.22 m
2018
1.17 m
989.00 m $
48.08 %
849 $
2017
1.06 m
875.00 m $
43.82 %
822 $
2016
948,000
776.00 m $
41.60 %
819 $
2015
1.03 m
810.00 m $
44.82 %
786 $
2014
987,000
778.00 m $
44.33 %
788 $
2013
921,000
354.00 m $
21.26 %
384 $
2012
889,000
337.00 m $
21.00 %
379 $
2011
950,000
321.00 m $
20.36 %
338 $
2010
984,000
309.00 m $
20.78 %
314 $
2009
982,000
296.00 m $
21.12 %
301 $
2008
925,000
311.00 m $
21.63 %
336 $
2007
905,000
302.00 m $
22.60 %
334 $
2006
670,000
294.00 m $
23.18 %
439 $
2005
720,000
382.00 m $
33.64 %
531 $
2004
791,000
326.00 m $
30.56 %
412 $
2003
683,000
282.00 m $
28.56 %
413 $
2002
648,000
210.00 m $
23.33 %
324 $
2001
747,000
233.00 m $
26.10 %
312 $
2000
727,000
281.00 m $
30.13 %
387 $
1999
666,000
263.00 m $
28.53 %
395 $
1998
629,000
283.00 m $
32.25 %
450 $
1997
563,000
253.00 m $
31.39 %
449 $
1996
422,000
237.00 m $
30.04 %
562 $
1995
407,000
230.00 m $
30.15 %
565 $
Our data on tourist numbers, revenues and expenditures are based on information from the World Tourism Organization. However, to ensure international comparability, the data for some years or countries were manually researched and corrected if they obviously included visitors without overnight stays. In these cases, the data were taken from the official communications of the respective national tourism authorities.
The World Tourism Organization additionally points out that in some countries, the number of tourists is only counted at airports, while in others they are also counted at border crossings or even hotels. A comprehensive and reliable indication is therefore hardly possible in any country.