First there was the breakout after restrictions had been lifted. Then there was all that pent-up journey demand. By means of every part of the post-pandemic interval, vacationers have continued flocking to the Caribbean.
It’s the signal of a resilient international vacation spot, and the Caribbean continues to captivate.
In different phrases, they simply preserve coming, in line with a brand new report from the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Group. Journey to the Caribbean is simply plain surging, with tourism arrivals within the area climbing 14.3 % final 12 months, in line with the CTO.
In all, that represented a complete of 32.2 million stayover arrivals in 2023, a rise of greater than 4 million from 2022.
Lodges proceed to replenish — with occupancy as much as 65.6 %, whereas each day charges are up almost 12 % in the identical interval.
It’s been a pervasive, resilient restoration, with the Caribbean outpacing many of the most important international journey areas, in line with Donna Regis-Prosper, Secretary Common of the CTO.
Nearly in all places within the Caribbean is seeing journey numbers both at or forward of the place they had been previous to the pandemic, and no less than 11 locations have surpassed their benchmark numbers of 2019, from Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire within the Dutch Caribbean to the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and St Maarten within the northern Caribbean. Different locations, from Antigua and Barbuda to the Cayman Islands, proceed to see sustained recoveries.
A lot of these locations have set new data, together with hotspots just like the Dominican Republic, Bonaire and Curacao, each of which surpassed their all-time data final 12 months (the Dominican Republic set an all-time document for the entire Caribbean, too, with nearly 8 million stopover arrivals).
The US market has absolutely recovered from the Caribbean standpoint, whereas European and Canadian guests are nearing 90 % of their pre-Covid totals.
And the restoration isn’t simply on land; the all-important Caribbean cruise trade additionally reported a brand new document, with 31.1 million cruise visits for the 12 months – a 2.4 % leap over 2019, anchored by the scorching cruise numbers within the area’s busiest port, Nassau.
“The Caribbean’s prospects seem extremely promising, with extra regional locations poised to both match or surpass the arrival figures recorded in 2019,” mentioned Cayman Islands Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan, who’s the chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Group’s Council of Ministers and Commissioners of Tourism. “Anticipated development is forecast to vary between 5 % and 10 %, probably welcoming between 33.8 million and 35.4 million stay-over vacationers [in 2024].”
In different phrases, the Caribbean remains to be in very excessive demand — and vacationers simply preserve coming.
