First there was the breakout after restrictions have been lifted. Then there was all that pent-up journey demand. Via every section 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 maintain coming, in accordance 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 p.c final 12 months, in accordance 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.
Inns proceed to replenish — with occupancy as much as 65.6 p.c, whereas every day charges are up almost 12 p.c in the identical interval.
It’s been a pervasive, resilient restoration, with the Caribbean outpacing a lot of the primary international journey areas, in accordance with Donna Regis-Prosper, Secretary Normal of the CTO.
Nearly in all places within the Caribbean is seeing journey numbers both at or forward of the place they have been previous to the pandemic, and at the very least 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.
Lots of these locations have set new information, together with hotspots just like the Dominican Republic, Bonaire and Curacao, each of which surpassed their all-time information final 12 months (the Dominican Republic set an all-time report for the entire Caribbean, too, with virtually 8 million stopover arrivals).
The US market has totally recovered from the Caribbean standpoint, whereas European and Canadian guests are nearing 90 p.c of their pre-Covid totals.
And the restoration isn’t simply on land; the all-important Caribbean cruise business additionally reported a brand new report, with 31.1 million cruise visits for the 12 months – a 2.4 p.c leap over 2019, anchored by the sizzling cruise numbers in the region’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 progress is forecast to vary between 5 p.c and 10 p.c, 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 maintain coming.