Antigua and Barbuda says it entered 2026 with a strong tourism lift, posting 110,832 stayover arrivals in the first quarter and extending the momentum around Caribbean Travel Marketplace 2026.
Tourism officials used the May 12 to 15 trade event to underline that the destination is growing from several directions at once: more visitors from the United Kingdom, a still-dominant United States market, added air routes and a larger cruise outlook for the year ahead.
Where the growth is coming from
According to figures highlighted during the event, stayover arrivals were up 7% year over year in the first quarter. The United Kingdom led source-market growth with a 14% rise, while the United States remained the largest single market at 46% of all stayover arrivals. Europe accounted for 34%, Canada for 12%, the Caribbean for 5%, Latin America for 1% and other markets for 2%.
The cruise side is also expected to run ahead of older benchmarks, with officials projecting a 21.9% increase in arrivals this year and a larger number of calls driven partly by home-porting activity. New connections from the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe and the Air Peace service via Barbados are being treated as part of the same growth story.
Tourism planners are also leaning on infrastructure and hotel development to keep the momentum going. Expansion at V.C. Bird International Airport, work at Burton-Nibbs International Airport on Barbuda and new room stock in the pipeline are all being positioned as support for a broader, longer-running tourism cycle rather than a one-season bump.
