Research by Kevin L. Michel
Domestic Value Added from Visitor Expenditure in Saint Lucia
How much of the tourism dollar actually stays in Saint Lucia?
The right question is not how many times a tourist dollar circulates. The better question is how much domestic value added and resident income Saint Lucia retains from EC$1 of visitor expenditure after commissions, imports, foreign factor-income leakage, and the local ripple effect that remains.
Headline model estimates
Net domestic value retained per EC$1 of visitor expenditure.
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What the model says directionally.
These are model estimates, not official published Saint Lucia ratios. They are built from official spending totals and benchmark structure, then completed with explicit assumptions where the evidence base is incomplete.
The highest-confidence directional pattern is that independent stayover and yacht expenditure retain more domestic value than all-inclusive stayover or cruise expenditure; imported retail shopping retains the least; tours, local transport, local crafts, and independently purchased food and beverage retain comparatively more.
- The meaningful measure is domestic value added, not gross turnover.
- Independent stayover and yacht visitor spending appear to retain more domestic value than all-inclusive or cruise spending.
- Import-heavy shopping retains the least value; local tours, transport, crafts, and independent food and beverage retain more.
- The IMF/CARTAC 14% stayover-spend overstatement sensitivity materially changes the aggregate headline.
Place-based intuition
Where tourism value is likely to concentrate.
This interpretive map turns the economics into geography: cruise activity around Castries, stayover clusters in the north and south, marina value around Marigot, and tour-rich linkages around Soufriere.
Cruise arrivals, urban spillover, port services, duty-free, tours, and taxi movement.
Hotels, restaurants, entertainment, excursions, and visitor-facing services.
High-linkage tours, recreation, guides, restaurants, heritage, and nature-based visits.
Marine visitors, provisioning, local services, charter movement, and dining.
Air arrivals, stayover distribution, south-island accommodation, and transport.
Segment comparison
Independent stayover and yacht visits retain more value.
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