Grenada just posted its biggest tourism year yet. Travellers spent roughly US$387.8 million on the island in 2025, a record for the destination and the second straight year of growth, with expenditure up 20.4 percent since 2023. The Grenada Tourism Authority expects the figure to climb again to about US$395.6 million in 2026.
Overnight visitors did the heavy lifting. Stayover travellers accounted for US$364.8 million in 2025 — around 94 percent of all visitor spending — up just over 5 percent on the previous year. That's the money that goes into hotels, restaurants, taxis and tours across a multi-day stay, and it's exactly the kind of tourism income small islands prize over short port calls.
Cruise passengers, though, delivered the fastest growth. Their spending jumped 56.6 percent year on year to about US$22.9 million. Combined, the two segments pushed Grenada past EC$1 billion (roughly US$370 million) in annual visitor expenditure for the first time, a threshold the island expects to clear again this year.
There's a strategy behind the numbers. The tourism authority has launched a programme called Pure Experiences, designed to connect visitors with locally run activities across Grenada and its sister islands, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Food, heritage and culture, wellness and nautical tourism are the priorities — essentially, getting travellers off the resort property and into cooking classes, village experiences, rum tastings and community-led tours. Chairman Randall Dolland has been blunt about the goal: deepen the links between tourism money and the wider Grenadian economy, from local suppliers to community businesses.
Demand looks healthy heading into the next season, too. Arrivals during the Aug. 2–11 Spicemas carnival window rose 20 percent versus the same dates a year earlier — a strong signal for the island's biggest cultural event.
Why should this matter to you as a traveller? A destination investing in local food and culture operators means better, more authentic things to do beyond the beach — and on the "Spice Isle" that's a real draw, given Grenada's reputation for nutmeg, chocolate and one of the Caribbean's more celebrated food scenes. It's also a place where your tourist dollars visibly reach small businesses, which makes a trip here feel less like a resort transaction. Spicemas in August is the standout event if you want the island at full throttle; quieter, greener and slower is easy to find on Carriacou. Expect Grenada to keep pushing community experiences into 2027, per the authority's operations chief Kirl Grant-Hoschtialek — early adopters get it before the crowds catch on.
