Anguilla's economy: luxury tourism and a two-letter domain

How much of Anguilla's economy is tourism

Tourism is the base. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank estimates that tourism and its associated sectors made up about 40% of Anguilla's GDP in 2025, and the IMF put tourism activities at 37% of GDP in its note of May 2024. Accommodation and food services contributed most to growth in 2025, and construction came next at 9.3% of GDP. The central bank put real growth at 3.2% for 2025, after 5.7% in 2024, and describes stay-over arrivals and GDP growth as strongly correlated.

The product is aimed at the top of the market. The central bank's review notes that Anguilla's tourism caters to high-end and luxury visitors, with the peak season in the first and last quarters of the year, when its main market, the United States, is in winter. American residents made up 69.7% of stay-over visitors in 2025. The island hosted the World Travel Awards at a resort in December 2014, and Irma's damage assessment in 2017 found most of the loss concentrated in large hotels and resorts built for high-end guests, with their own generators, water treatment and reverse-osmosis plants.

Arrivals have been rising for three years. The central bank estimated 240,983 visitor arrivals in 2025, 16.7% more than in 2024, split between 121,463 stay-over visitors and 119,520 excursionists, who visit for the day without staying the night. The Statistics Department's monthly series, compiled from Immigration Department records, showed 26,838 visitor arrivals in June 2026 alone, 11,067 of them stay-over tourists. Its own total for 2025 was 229,734, a different figure from the central bank's estimate; Anguilla Focus reported 171,143 arrivals in the first half of 2026. The travel article, how visitors reach Anguilla, covers the routes they take.

The growth is recent. The Caribbean Tourism Organization counted over 69,000 stay-over tourists and 82,000 day visitors in 2013, according to the 2015 Important Bird Areas survey, which also reported tourism accounting for more than half of employment. The island's own workforce has never been large enough for the building that tourism brings: in 2006 and 2007 large numbers of Chinese, Indian and Mexican workers were brought in to build new resorts, because the local population could not meet the demand for labour.

Why the .ai domain became a public revenue

Almost every country and territory was given a two-letter internet domain in the early years of the network, and Anguilla's is .ai. Registrations began on 16 February 1995. For most of the years since, the domain was a small line in the accounts; a New York Times report in 2018 put the revenue at US$2.9 million. After ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, the suffix was wanted for what the two letters also abbreviate. According to the IMF, registrations rose from 144,000 in 2022 to 354,000 in 2023, and the BBC reported more than 850,000 .ai domains in existence by September 2025, up from fewer than 50,000 in 2020. Domain Name Stat's count passed one million in early January 2026.

The revenue followed. The IMF reported EC$87 million from .ai registrations in 2023, about US$32 million and just over 20% of total government revenue, against around 5% in earlier years. The government's draft 2025 budget put the 2024 figure at EC$105.5 million, about 23% of revenue. For 2025 the central bank estimated EC$232.2 million, equal to 16.5% of GDP and more than 30% of current revenue, with receipts averaging EC$18 to 20 million a month after the domain's management changed hands in January 2025.

How the domain is sold and managed

The IMF described the pricing in 2024: US$140 for a two-year registration, with about 90% of domains renewed after two years, so each wave of new names becomes a recurring income. The BBC reported registration prices starting at roughly US$150 to US$200. Expired names are auctioned, and the prices can be large; the IMF cited litigate.ai at US$13,000 in 2023, and the BBC reported that the HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah paid about US$700,000 for one name in 2025, and that cloud.ai sold for US$600,000 and law.ai for US$350,000.

In October 2024 the government signed a five-year agreement with Identity Digital, a registry company based in the United States, which took over management in January 2025 and moved the domain's hosting from servers on the island to its own network, as protection against hurricanes and power cuts. The government receives the sales revenue, and Identity Digital's share is said to be around 10%; the BBC reported that neither party would discuss it. The arrangement is a revenue share, where Tuvalu licensed .tv in 1998 for a fixed annual payment that its own finance minister later called "peanuts".

The suffix has also been treated as something other than a country code. Google announced in 2021 that it had added .ai to its list of generic country-code domains, so its search engine no longer assumes that an .ai site is aimed at Anguilla. Anyone may register a name, resident or not, and Anguilla uses the standard international procedure for disputes over names.

What the domain money has paid for

The IMF reported in 2024 that the authorities had committed to paying down debt and prioritising capital spending, including the airport, with renewable energy and the blue economy as medium-term aims. The central bank recorded the completion of the terminal building at Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport in 2025 among the main public projects, and the 2026 budget presented on 11 November 2025 set aside EC$87 million for the airport's continued redevelopment within capital spending of EC$233.36 million. The same budget proposed a 12-megawatt solar plant and a sovereign wealth fund, and the central bank notes funds set aside to train local people in managing the domain.

How the budget turned from deficit to surplus

The change shows most clearly in the central bank's fiscal table. In 2019 .ai revenue was 1.1% of GDP and total public sector debt was EC$493.2 million, 48.1% of GDP. By 2025 the domain brought in an estimated 16.5% of GDP, debt had fallen to EC$292.8 million, 20.8% of GDP, and the overall balance showed a surplus of EC$171.0 million, 12.1% of GDP. The 2026 budget address gave the 2025 surplus as EC$87.3 million and debt at EC$292.17 million, 19.9% of GDP, figures that differ from the central bank's estimate.

Tax revenue moved the other way in 2025, falling an estimated 9.1%, because a relief programme removed the 13% Goods and Services Tax from all goods. With energy prices also lower, consumer prices fell: the central bank estimated inflation at minus 0.9% at the end of 2025, after minus 0.5% at the end of 2024.

The tax system was thin before the domain boom. Anguilla levies no capital gains, estate, profit, sales or corporate taxes, and in April 2011, facing a mounting deficit, it introduced a 3% Interim Stabilisation Levy, its first form of income tax; property carries a tax of 0.75%. The IMF's expectation in 2024 was that domain revenue would settle at around 15% of government revenue as the first rush slowed. The 2026 budget, projecting total revenue of EC$597.4 million, assumed no new borrowing over the medium term.

What Hurricane Irma cost the island

Hurricane Irma, on 6 September 2017, is the measure against which the recovery is read. The damage assessment summarised by the University of the West Indies put damage at XCD 507 million, 76.5% of it in the private sector, and losses at XCD 331.5 million. Tourism took the largest share: XCD 275 million of damage, XCD 203 million of it in large hotels and resorts, and XCD 270.2 million of lost income spread over 2017, 2018 and 2019. Wikipedia's economy article gives US$320 million in material damage.

The storm broke the grid and the phone network together. Wind damage to poles and lines caused prolonged power cuts, every panel of the utility's 1.1-megawatt solar array was blown away or shattered, and all but three of more than 40 mobile towers went offline. The assessment projected current revenue for 2017 falling to XCD 185.5 million against a pre-storm target of XCD 214.9 million, and a fiscal deficit of XCD 45.4 million against XCD 10 million expected. The United Kingdom later gave £60 million over five years towards the repairs. Infrastructure was rebuilt in 2018 and 2019, and the COVID-19 pandemic set the economy back again in 2020 and 2021.

What Anguilla buys and sells abroad

Almost everything consumed is imported. In the central bank's external accounts for 2025, goods imports came to an estimated 45.8% of GDP and goods exports to 4.1%, a merchandise deficit of 41.7% of GDP. Services paid for it: travel receipts equalled 70.0% of GDP, and with .ai income added the current account showed an estimated surplus of 28.5% of GDP in 2025. In 2019 the same account had been in deficit by 43.0% of GDP.

Foreign direct investment has fallen away as the government and local firms took a larger part in construction. The central bank estimated net direct investment inflows at EC$6.0 million in 2025, 0.4% of GDP. Nominal GDP was put at EC$1,408.6 million for 2025.

How Anguilla uses the East Caribbean dollar

Anguilla uses the East Caribbean dollar, issued by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank for the members of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union and fixed to the United States dollar at US$1 to EC$2.70. The American dollar is widely accepted alongside it. The central bank also supervises the banks: its review of 2025 put non-performing loans at 11.8% of the total, against a benchmark of 5.0%, and recorded domestic credit contracting by 20.5% as the government's deposits grew. In 2013 the central bank took control of Anguilla's locally owned banks.

Offshore finance is the other service industry. The first comprehensive financial services legislation was passed in late 1994, and the sector now includes seven banks, more than 40 company managers, more than 50 insurers, more than 250 captive intermediaries, more than 50 mutual funds and eight trust companies, according to Wikipedia's economy article.

What the land and sea still produce

Farming has always been marginal on thin, dry soil, and most food is imported. In the 19th century the island's main product was salt, evaporated in its ponds and shipped to the United States, and the salt works at Road Salt Pond operated until the 1970s. Lobster fishing, boatbuilding and remittances from emigrants remain part of the economy, and small farms grow vegetables, peppers, limes and pigeon peas.

Energy is imported too. Electricity came entirely from fossil fuel, much of it imported diesel, and the government set a goal of 15% solar power; the 12-megawatt plant proposed in the 2026 budget is meant to cut costs and imports. The central bank projected growth of 2.3% for 2026, with public debt falling to 17.4% of GDP, while the 2026 budget address projected 2.7%.