How did Caribbean Tourism fare in 2019?

How did Caribbean Tourism fare in 2019?
Caribbean Tourism
Avatar of Linda Hohnholz
Written by Linda Hohnholz

In a presentation today by Neil Walters, the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) acting Secretary General, shared his report:

Sparked by robust recovery in the destinations that were affected by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, Caribbean tourism rebounded soundly to post record arrivals in terms of both stayover and cruise in 2019.

Stayover arrivals grew by 4.4 percent to reach 31.5 million. This outpaced the international rate of growth of 3.8% reported by the World Tourism Organization.

Overall, the destinations most impacted by the hurricanes in 2017 saw some of the highest rates of growth. Some examples of this were Sint Maarten which experienced growth of 80 percent, Anguilla (74.9 percent), the British Virgin Islands (57.3 percent), Dominica (51.7 percent), the US Virgin Islands (38.1 percent), and Puerto Rico increased (31.2 percent).

Meanwhile, cruise visits increased by 3.4 percent to 30.2 million, representing the seventh consecutive year of growth.  

The US was the best performing among the major stayover markets, registering an increase of 10 percent to reach a record 15.5 million visitors.

However, Canada, one of only two main markets to have sustained growth in each of the last three years, was sluggish in 2019 at 0.4 percent growth, equivalent to 3.4 million tourist visits.

The European market dipped by 1.4 percent from 5.9 million in 2018 to 5.8 million. The UK was down by 5.6 percent to approximately 1.3 million visitors.

On the other hand, intra-Caribbean travel increased by 7.4 percent to reach 2.0 million, while the South American market declined by 10.4 percent to 1.5 million. 

According to STR Global, in the hotel sector revenue per available room at year end was US$139.45 representing a growth rate of 2.8 percent in, while the average daily room rate grew by 5.6 percent to US$218.82. Room occupancy on the other hand, fell by 2.7 percent, from 65.5 percent in 2018 to 63.7 percent last year.

In conclusion, 2019 was a great one overall for Caribbean tourism, based not only on the record performance by the region, but also for some individual destinations. These achievements were made despite several challenges such as global economic and political uncertainty and the impact of climate change leading to extreme weather events in some cases.

As we navigate 2020, concerns remain over the global economic, environmental, political and social uncertainty, including the US presidential election, the impact of climate change and extreme weather events and health threats/issues, especially the coronavirus, and how these could influence our performance.

There are other factors such less-than-adequate intra-regional air access and high levels of taxation which may hinder travel. However, destinations are making improvements to their infrastructure and thereโ€™s renewed investment regionally in tourism facilities for both air and sea travelers.

For 2020, tourist arrivals to the 2017-hurricane impacted destinations should further normalization, returning closer to the pre-hurricane levels. Other destinations are expected to show modest growth as the worldโ€™s economy is expected to expand by 2.5%, according to the World Bank, while the USA economy (the regionโ€™s largest source market) is only expected to grow 1.8 %.

Based on our preliminary estimates, tourist arrival levels to the Caribbean are projected to grow between 1.0% and 2.0% in 2020, with a similar rate of growth expected for the cruise sector.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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