by Curlan Campbell
- Incidents in 2023 and 2024 challenged country’s ability to reassure visitors
- GTA has declared Spicemas 2025 a success, reporting no major incidents
- GTA worked closely with Royal Grenada Police Force to ensure visitor safety
The Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) has declared Spicemas 2025 a success, reporting no major incidents and reaffirming the island’s reputation as a safe travel destination.
The announcement comes after a turbulent 2 years in which natural disasters and isolated high-profile crimes briefly threatened Grenada’s image abroad.
In February 2024, a violent case shocked the nation and drew international headlines when 3 men from St Andrew — Ron Mitchell, 30; Atiba Stanisclaus, 27; and Trevon Robertson, 21 — were sentenced to decades in prison for the murders of American couple Ralph Henry, 67, and Kathleen Brandel, 71, from Virginia. The couple’s bodies were never recovered after being reportedly disposed of at sea. The men had escaped from the South St George Police Station, where they were being held on charges of robbery, indecent assault, and attempted rape. They were later arrested in St Vincent after fleeing Grenada aboard the victims’ 45-foot catamaran.
That same year, Spicemas saw isolated violence. During the St George’s J’ouvert, police confirmed “one shooting and one stabbing.” In 2023, Grenadians mourned the death of 24-year-old Jonty Robinson, known within the LGBT community, whose body was discovered floating at BBC Beach. Javid Raymond, 28, was charged in connection with the killing.
Tourism leaders acknowledged that such incidents, coupled with Hurricane Beryl in July 2024, challenged the country’s ability to reassure visitors.
At a recent engagement between GTA officials and journalists, GTA Chairman Randall Dolland stressed the economic fallout. “I’m talking about when you have charter companies like the mega yachts not calling to the destination. That was one direct effect of the incident with the cruisers. You also saw a dip in numbers in terms of cruisers coming into the destination.”
Dolland revealed that conservative estimates put Grenada’s economic loss at $4 million. “I got a direct call from individuals in New York asking, ‘How safe is the Grenadines at this point?’” he said. “So immediately, top of mind, a visitor then second-guesses [coming] to Grenada, when we know safety is one of our niche selling points.”
He added that the GTA worked closely with the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) to ensure visitor safety. “That includes having patrols on the beach, ensuring that visitors feel safe,” Dolland explained. “We are also doing more of a public campaign… to get it into our consciousness or psyche that pulling a trigger on somebody could cost all of us money. It could cost us millions of dollars.”
The GTA also leaned on its crisis management team to counter negative narratives internationally. “We had to go to the market and start responding with the counter-narrative of, well, Grenada is in fact safe,” Dolland said. “Grenada’s murder rate is very low. Grenada is a great place to still visit.”
Despite setbacks, Grenada’s tourism industry has shown resilience. “We didn’t see a drop in visitor arrivals for overnight stays, but we did see a fall-off with the calls for the following season,” Dolland acknowledged. “However, year over year, total arrival increases are still going up. Even in a year of Beryl, we still had record visitor arrivals.”
Looking ahead, Dolland projected optimism, saying, “We are continuing to grow the destination. We are seeing the tourism economy continue to pick up. Hopefully, we could hit that billion-dollar mark in 2026.”
For now, officials are celebrating Spicemas 2025’s safe conclusion. As Dolland summarised, “Grenada is still one of the safest places in the world, and our focus is to keep it that way.”
