Turks & Caicos Continues Climb to Tourism Summit

Turks & Caicos has enjoyed a bumper year for tourism in 2012, as it prepares to welcome the leading lights of the travel industry to its sunny shores for the World Travel Awards on September 14th.

While this growth can be attributed in part to new developments taking place on island and new airlift coming on stream, the raw and pristine beauty of the destination remains its prime selling point.

The Turks and Caicos Islands boast 230 miles of the world’s best beaches, and the second largest coral reef in the world. Visitors can enjoy a wide range of water sports including snorkeling, scuba diving, deep-sea fishing, sailing, kite-boarding, jet skiing and swimming.

On land the destination offers equally alluring attractions including fine-dining, restorative spas, golf, tennis, horseback riding, duty-free shopping and a casino.

With year-round sunshine and direct flights from the U.S., Canada and London, Turks and Caicos offers something for everyone – families, adventure-seekers, honeymooners and friends.

“2011 has seen record visitor arrivals to the TCI. Our islands happily welcomed over one million tourists (cruise and stay-over) to our shores,” explains Ralph Higgs, director of tourism for Turks & Caicos.

“2012 is showing as much promise as 2011 and by year’s end 2012 we expect to see increases over last year. In fact, since 2009, TCI have seen double digit growth annually.”  Higgs added.

According to Higgs, this growth can be attributed to both the success of the cruise port in Grand Turk as well as recently added airlift from the United States and Canada over the last two years.

These flights include JetBlue from New York, Continental from Newark, New Jersey and in season flights by American Airlines from Dallas, Fort Worth and Air Canada from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

What is even more impressive is that visitor arrivals continue to climb regardless of the rocky economy and despite the controversial rise Air Passenger Duty (APD) in the UK – one of Turks & Caicos’ major source markets.

According to the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), APD – which was first introduced by British Government in 1994 - has been a contributing factor to a decline in the number of British holidaymakers visiting the Caribbean in recent years.