Tourism Summary Data
April 2002
Data from the Port of Sandy Ground is not included
for April 2001/2002.
As the tourist season was on the road to recovery in 2001 following the disaster of 1999 (hurricane Lenny) which affected visitor arrivals for the first 10 months of 2000, the season was dealt another blow in the last quarter of 2001 as a result of the September 11th tragedy that took place in the U.S.A spilling over to the 2002 season.
January to April saw a decline of 6.2% in visitor arrivals for the period 2001/2002. When comparing the first four months of 2000(post hurricane Lenny) which saw 30,910 arrivals with the same period for 2002, (post September 11) arrivals increased by 10% or 33,959 arrivals.
April visitor arrivals declined in 2002 by 16.3% compared to 2001. This decline can to some extent be attributed to Easter occurring in April last year and in March this year. This seasonal influence can be adjusted by averaging the two months and comparing to the same period last year. The percentage decline for March and April was 5.4%, which is a slight improvement on the average decline of 7% for January and February. Total visitor arrivals were 8,167 in April 2002 compared to 9,755 for last year.
Visitor arrivals are made up of excursionists and
tourists. In April, tourist arrivals were the main source of the decline. They
declined 26% from 6,053 in April 2001 to 4,483 this year. Again using the
average for the two-month period to adjust for the seasonal influence, visitor
arrivals declined an average of 12.6% in March and April compared to 15.3% in
January and February, again showing a slight improvement. Part of this
improvement during the last two months can be attributed to the success of the
Moonsplash festival, which took place in March. In total over the first four
months of this year tourist arrivals declined 13.8% but was 6% higher than in
2000.
80.2% or
3,596 of the 4,483 tourists that visited the island during April stayed for a
period of 4-15 days. 658 visited for
1-3 days and 229 visited for 16-23 days.
For April, the length of stay was 8 days the same for the corresponding
period in 2001.
Excursionist arrivals, the visitor that contributed most to the decline in overall visitor arrivals for the 2000/2001 season is steadily on the road to pre Lenny figures. For January to April 2000/2001 arrivals increased by 9%, compared to the same period 2002, arrivals maintains its upward movement recording a 5.3% increase.
Excursionist arrivals declined marginally in April by 0.5%. They numbered 3,684 in April 2002 compared to 3,702 last year.
The U.S.A., Anguilla’s major source market representing 70.8% of the tourist market, saw a decline once again of 18.4% for April. The Caribbean including the French and Dutch West Indies accounted for 14.1% of the market share. Arrivals from this region also fell by 29.2%. The United Kingdom represented 5.0%, while Italy and Germany accounted for 1.5% and 0.7% respectively. Canada and Other Europe who accounted for 2.0% and 3.7% of the market share saw declines for April in arrivals to Anguilla of 26.1% and 37.5% [1]respectively.
Passenger Arrivals (which include all Visitors and
Anguillians) through Blowing Point were 13,140 and through the Airport
4,494 for the month of April 2002.