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ST. KITTS-NEVIS CRUISE SECTOR STILL BELOW HISTORIC ONE-MILLION VISITOR MARK DESPITE 918,198 PASSENGERS CONFIRMED FOR CURRENT SEASON

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts — St. Kitts and Nevis’ cruise sector is showing signs of continued recovery, but the latest official figures confirm that the Federation has still not returned to the historic one-million cruise passenger benchmark achieved in consecutive pre-COVID seasons under the Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris-led Team Unity Administration, when Hon. Lindsay Grant served as Minister of Tourism.

According to information released by the St. Kitts and Nevis Information Service following a Ministry of Tourism press conference on May 28, 2026, current Tourism Minister Hon. Marsha Henderson reported that the Federation has welcomed 918,198 cruise passengers so far, while noting that “the season is not yet over.”

The figure represents the strongest publicly confirmed cruise arrival performance since Minister Henderson assumed responsibility for tourism in 2022. However, it also confirms that St. Kitts and Nevis remains below the celebrated million-passenger level that placed the Federation among the standout cruise destinations in the region before the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2019, then Tourism Minister Lindsay Grant publicly stated that St. Kitts and Nevis had exceeded one million cruise passenger arrivals in two consecutive cruise seasons, describing the achievement as a first in the country’s history and noting that the Federation was the only destination in the OECS to reach that milestone at the time.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization also recorded that St. Kitts became a marquee port after reaching the one-million passenger mark in the 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 cruise seasons, before the pandemic disrupted what was expected to be continued growth in the sector.

That pre-pandemic cruise surge was widely seen as one of the major tourism success stories of the Team Unity period, supported by aggressive cruise line engagement, Port Zante expansion, increased ship calls and the strengthening of St. Kitts’ position as a high-demand Eastern Caribbean port.

By contrast, the current administration’s latest figure of 918,198 passengers, while impressive in the post-pandemic recovery context, still leaves the destination short of the million-passenger record previously achieved in back-to-back seasons.

Minister Henderson, however, framed the current performance as part of a broader tourism recovery and repositioning effort, emphasizing not only visitor volume but also the importance of improving visitor spending and strengthening relationships with cruise partners. According to SKNIS, she stated that the ministry’s focus is “not just about increasing the number of visitors, but improving the quality of spend.”

Still, the comparison is politically and economically significant. Cruise tourism remains a major contributor to taxi operators, tour guides, vendors, retail businesses, restaurants, craft markets and port-based employment. For many stakeholders, the key question is whether St. Kitts and Nevis can return to the commanding pre-COVID cruise performance that once placed the Federation above the million-passenger threshold in consecutive years.

The current figure also comes after earlier projections and public optimism that the cruise sector was on track for a return to more than one million passengers. WINN FM reported earlier this year that tourism officials had indicated St. Kitts was well positioned to receive more than one million cruise passengers for the peak season.

With the season not yet officially closed, the final number could still rise. But based on the latest confirmed figure, the Federation remains below the historic benchmark set before the pandemic.

For the Harris-Grant tourism record, the million-passenger milestone remains a major talking point. For the Drew-Henderson administration, the challenge is now clear: convert recovery into record-breaking performance, restore St. Kitts and Nevis to the top tier of regional cruise destinations, and ensure that increased arrivals translate into stronger earnings for local businesses and ordinary citizens.

The latest numbers show progress. But they also show that the Federation has not yet reclaimed the cruise heights it once celebrated.