Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda are part of the Lesser Antilles, in the middle of the Leeward Island and includes other 45 minor islands mostly inhabited with few of the privately owned.
Originally an English colony, Antigua and Barbuda gained full Independence in 1981 and nowadays is part of the Commonwealth, retaining Queen Elizabeth as head of state. English is therefore the official language.
Population is around 96,000 with 97% of it living in Antigua.
The economy is based mainly on tourism which accounts for more than 50% of the GDP.
Almost ¾ of the total tourists arrive with cruise ships and the nationalities are mainly American and British.
Antigua with the capital St. John’s is the main island, Barbuda is much less developed and even before the hurricane Irma that in 2017 destroyed everything, tourism offers was limited.
Reconstruction was started but it remains to be seen how it will progress.
There are no dive centers in Barbuda, only some in Antigua, even if the reefs are reported to be very nice.
Prices of the real estates are reasonable, not expensive as you could expect.
For the time being, Antigua and Barbuda have the most convenient citizenship by investment of all the Caribbean.
Overall it is a quite interesting destination and the fact that the diving activity is relatively small, it may represent an opportunity.
In particular, Barbuda is very attractive from a sustainability point of view since it has been spared by mass tourism at least for now, but also from a diving point of view because the coral reefs are very well preserved and there are several wrecks mostly unexplored
The main negative point would be the citizenship by investment program but that is quite a standard in the Caribbean, so it will have to go into the budget anyway.
Antigua and Barbuda can definitely be considered one of the possible destinations, worth a visit in the next years.
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