Whale Watching Worldwide

Acknowledgements:
Thanks to two operators.
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Year Number of
whale
watchers
Main species: Large cetaceans:
sperm whale, humpback whale
Small cetaceans:
spinner dolphin, pantropical spotted dolphin,
short‐finned pilot whale
Tourists:
International 100%
Domestic 0%
Types of tours: Day trips
Average ticket price: $50
Estimated employment
4
numbers:
Main whale watch season: October to May
AAGR: Number of
operators
Direct
expenditures
Indirect
Expenditures
Total
Expenditure
1991 Minimal N/A Minimal Minimal Minimal Minimal
1994 800 N/A 2 $24,000 $129,000 $153,000
1998 600 ‐6.7% 2 $34,000 $66,000 $100,000
2008 2,100 13.4% 2 $88,200 $118,200 $206,400
Capital City: Kingstown
Whale Watch Locations:
01: Arnos Vale
02: Kingstown
St. Vincent and the Grenadines have two commercial operators
running dedicated day trips to watch dolphins and whales out of
Arnos Vale and Kingstown on St. Vincent. Both operators have now
run trips for many years but numbers have increased substantially
the last decade with an average annual increase of 13.4%. Dolphins
and whales are found in the waters of St. Vincent and the
Grenadines all year round, while sperm and humpback whales are
seasonal visitors. The trips have an excellent 80% sighting success rate for dolphins from April to September.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines tends to appeal to the more exclusive tourist partly because there are no
direct flights from the US or Europe, with about a third of visitors to the islands arriving by yacht. Tourist
stays on the island chain initially increased in the early part of the decade, but then fell back to lower levels
with air arrivals around 65,000 in 2008 (Caribbean Tourism Organisation). As with many Caribbean islands,
cruises are an important section of the tourism market. In St. Vincent cruise arrivals fell from a peak in 2006
of 106,474 to 67,537 last year ‐ partly due to hurricane damage to the cruise terminal.
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