TORONTO — The Turks & Caicos Tourist Board – Canada welcomed the trade to its new home in Toronto, with a reception and open house hosted by the Premier of the Turks & Caicos Islands, Dr. Rufus W. Ewing.

The new office, located at 340 Sheppard Avenue East, will be run by Tourism Promotions Executive, Rosemarie Wilson.

Premier Ewing said the new office “demonstrates our commitment to Canada. We look forward to this office growing very quickly,” he added.

Overall tourist arrivals to the Turks and Caicos Islands grew by 41% in the first quarter of this year, with robust growth recorded across all major source markets including Canada.

January, February and March saw a combined total of 358,188visitor arrivals to the destination, accounting for 104,437 more visitor arrivals than first quarter 2013. The combined number represents 105,506 stopover visitors and 252,682 visitors arriving by cruise ship.

Canada, the destination’s second largest source market, indicated a slight rebound with a total of 14,830 stopover arrivals in the first quarter of 2014, an increase of 13%.

“These are wonderful results for the destination, the country, the tourism industry and the economy,” said director of tourism, Ralph L. Higgs. “We are thrilled to see our overall arrival numbers for the first quarter of 2014 up 41%, and we are optimistic that these numbers will continue to climb through the remainder of the year.”

During the first quarter of 2014, the Grand Turk Cruise Center welcomed a total of 252,682 cruise passengers, a 46% increase.

“We are impressed by these increases and look forward to another tremendous year for the cruise sector. If all factors prove well and remains equal, we expect the cruise sector to welcome one million visitors to the destination alone this year,” said Higgs.