St. John's, Antigua -- Sept. 21, 2007 -- The Ministry of Tourism today announced the publication of its first quarterly tourism statistical report for the period January 2007 - March 2007.

The report, which is the first of four reports that will be produced for 2007, provides both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of visitors to Antigua and Barbuda.

According to Director General of Tourism Lorraine Headley, "the Ministry of Tourism expects that with the production of such quarterly reports, our marketing strategies will be better guided, leaving Antigua and Barbuda in a position to effectively compete for and attract a greater amount of outbound travel from destinations throughout the world."

The recently published report provides a comprehensive breakdown of the US, Canada, UK, German, French and the Caribbean markets.

In addition to providing the demographic, geographic characteristics of the visitors to the island, data was also collected on the visitor experience, which will further help us to enhance our product, said the Director General.

"The January 2007 - March 2007 report is the first substantive report in seven years and the first report to include visitor feedback in fourteen years." Patrice Skerritt, Research Officer in the Ministry of Tourism who played an instrumental role in the production of the report remarked, "The cooperation and assistance that was received from airport officials and airline passengers was quite heartening and the success of this survey is largely because of their efforts,"

"We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all who assisted in this survey exercise and we look forward to your continued assistance and support as we endeavor to increase the returns from the Tourism Industry."

The quantitative data was collected from the immigration cards of arriving passengers, and the qualitative data from completed questionnaire forms from departing visitors at the V.C. Bird International Airport.

The data collection, processing and presentation were conducted by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the Caribbean Tourism Organization and complies with international standards.

Information for the qualitative analysis was compiled over a three week period from 19th February to 11th March 2007 from departing passengers at the VC Bird International Airport. The data collected represents responses from a sample of 3034 visitors.

For information on how you can receive a copy of this report, please contact Maria Blackman, Communications Officer, Ministry of Tourism at tel:462-0480.

Source: ab.gov.ag