PM Browne Says Antigua and Barbuda Should Target 10 Million Tourists a Year, Calls Current Overnight Numbers ‘Not Enough’
Prime Minister Gaston Browne says his long-term vision is for Antigua and Barbuda to eventually attract up to 10 million tourists annually, arguing that the country must expand far beyond its current stay-over performance to achieve the level of economic transformation he envisions.
Speaking on the Browne and Browne Show, Browne said the nation is nowhere close to the scale required for long-term growth and insisted the tourism sector is still in its early stages.
“In the future doing as many as 10 million tourists,” he said. “That’s when we would have arrived and doing serious business.”
He noted that while cruise arrivals have doubled compared to previous years, the stay-over market remains far below potential.
Antigua and Barbuda currently records an estimated 350,000 to 400,000 overnight visitors, a figure Browne described as insufficient.
“Especially when it comes to overnight tourists… 350, 400,000 tourists… that is not enough,” he said.
Browne said the country needs to reach one million overnight visitors annually as a starting point — a threshold he still considers modest. “Until we get up to about maybe a million to start, and that’s still small,” he said.
The Prime Minister argued that scaling up tourism arrivals would significantly expand national income, saying each million visitors has the potential to generate roughly a billion dollars for the economy.
He urged the public not to “think small” and reiterated his administration’s goal of positioning Antigua and Barbuda as a high-end tourism and “lifestyle superpower.”
Browne’s comments come as the country continues to invest in cruise infrastructure, home-porting operations, and luxury tourism development aimed at increasing visitor arrivals across all segments.
