CARIBBEAN SEES IMPROVEMENT IN VISITOR ARRIVALS

Acting Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Neil Walters

March 17, 2023 | By Colin O. Jarrett |

Acting Secretary-General of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), Neil Walters is reporting that the Caribbean was one of the regions with the quickest recovery rates globally in 2022 in relation to tourist arrivals.

The CTO head was speaking at a Caribbean Tourism Performance and Outlook press conference in Barbados on March 7.

Twenty-eight point three million land-based visitors arrived on the region’s shores, 88.6 per cent of pre-pandemic levels of 2019, the year that is used as a baseline for typical tourism activity before COVID.

Walters said the recovery was bolstered by the relaxation of restrictions in international travel as well as strong demand in the United States, the region’s top source market for inbound travel.

“Strategic marketing initiatives and the restoration of some of the airlift capacity between more markets and the Caribbean have also contributed to the positive results,” he explained.

However, Haiti, which showed a negative 20.3% during 2022. The industry was negatively impacted by the crisis in that country and the US Virgin Islands, which is normalizing, showed negative 3.2%. But the other 27 Caribbean tourism destinations showed an increase in stopover arrivals compared to 2021 of between 8.3% and 16%. However, Walters pointed out that the industry’s recover and growth were undermined throughout the year by negative effects, including rising prices and intermittent supply chain disruptions, caused by the pandemic, labour shortages and disputes, global inflation and heightened geopolitical tensions.

Although the entire region has not yet surpassed 2019 numbers, according to chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, Kenneth Bryan, who is also Minister of Tourism, Cayman Islands, the needle is moving in the right direction.

The top five Caribbean destinations are Puerto Rico, The US Virgin Islands, St Maarten, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Dominican Republic. These countries have now surpassed their total pre-pandemic arrival numbers, which are still being tabulated, said Walters.