BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Persevering with its constructive restoration development, Caribbean tourism grew in 2023 with an estimated 14.3% enhance in worldwide stay-over arrivals to the area, the Caribbean Tourism Group (CTO) has reported.
Delivering the “Caribbean Tourism Efficiency Overview 2023” in Bridgetown at this time, Dona Regis-Prosper, Secretary-Basic of the CTO, shared that final yr’s development was in step with CTO’s forecast for the yr, and attributed the result to sustained demand for outbound journey from america – the Caribbean’s essential supply market, enhanced tourism-related infrastructure throughout the locations, the achievement of strategic advertising and marketing initiatives, and augmented airlift capability between the area and its supply markets, albeit inconsistently distributed among the many locations.
Dona Regis-Prosper, Secretary-Basic of the CTO
The restoration of world tourism has been resilient, regardless of variability within the regional performances, in response to Regis-Prosper, with the Caribbean surpassing pre-pandemic arrivals by a modest 0.8%, outperforming a lot of the essential world areas by way of restoration.
Arrival levels amongst Caribbean locations both considerably recovered or reasonably exceeded the benchmark numbers of 2019, with 11 locations, Anguilla, Aruba, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Turks & Caicos Islands, and U.S. Virgin Islands performing higher than in 2019. Nearly all of these recovered larger than 50% of their 2019 arrivals. As well as, a number of locations registered new report ranges for vacationer arrivals in a single yr.
United States and Canada Markets
For the Caribbean, solely the U.S. market has totally recovered, whereas the restoration charges of arrivals from Europe and Canada reached 88.2% and 88.1%, respectively. An estimated 16.3 million stay-over arrivals to the area got here from america, representing an annual development fee of 12.7%. The efficiency right here established a brand new report degree of arrivals from this market and surpassed the pre-pandemic arrivals by 4.2%. The efficiency of the Canadian market resulted in an estimated three million Canadian vacationer visits by the top of the yr, a rise of 46.1% in comparison with 2022. Elevated air service from main Canadian cities to Caribbean locations performed a pivotal function in driving up customer numbers.
Europe, Caribbean and South America Markets
Regis-Prosper famous that arrivals from Europe to the Caribbean area had been stagnant in 2023. A complete of roughly 5.2 million journeys originated from the market. In 2023, journey amongst Caribbean residents to locations throughout the area elevated by roughly 3.6%, a complete of 1.6 million journeys, which was 0.3 million extra in comparison with 2022. This additionally indicated a restoration of 62.5% from pre-pandemic ranges. “Regardless of this constructive end result, intra-regional journey remained costly because of fragmented air service and lowered air capability,” mentioned Regis-Prosper. By the top of the yr, journeys from South America to the area surged by an estimated 14%, totaling 1.7 million journeys.
Caribbean Resort Efficiency
The Caribbean lodge sector skilled a exceptional turnaround in 2023, together with a surge within the institution of latest motels and resorts. Based on STR, all through the Caribbean, common room occupancy grew to 65.6% in 2023 from 61% in 2022. The typical day by day fee (ADR) skilled a substantial enhance of 11.8% with the area’s ADR reaching US$329.37 whereas the income per out there room (RevPAR) jumped 20.2% to US$215.97.
Cruise Tourism Efficiency
Preliminary knowledge for 2023 confirmed that Caribbean locations acquired an estimated 31.1 million cruise visits, reflecting a rise of 11.3 million visits or 56.8% in comparison with 2019. This degree established a brand new report for the regional cruise sector, surpassing the earlier report of 2019 by 2.4%. Pent-up demand and the resumption of operations drove sturdy bookings for Caribbean cruises, together with enhancements in cruise infrastructure similar to bigger ships, enhanced services, itineraries, and shore excursions.
Projections point out that the cruise sector will proceed its upward monitor, with an estimated 34.2 million to 35.8 million cruise visits anticipated within the Caribbean in 2024. This anticipated growth falls throughout the vary of 10% and 15%.
Exceptional Resilience
Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Group’s Council of Ministers and Commissioners of Tourism, Kenneth Bryan, who additionally serves because the Cayman Islands’ Minister of Tourism and Ports, famous the exceptional resilience of the tourism business and its ongoing restoration and development in 2023. Nevertheless, he emphasised that the business and the area will proceed to face an array of challenges, together with the excessive value of journey, ongoing conflicts, heightened geopolitical tensions, and their anticipated impacts, in 2024.
CTO Chairman Hon. Kenneth Bryan
“Caribbean locations stay adaptable and responsive, and the area remains to be extremely desired by vacationers for its security and variety of tourism merchandise,” said Chairman Bryan, including that the area may also be positively impacted by key developments in 2024, together with elevated air capability all year long, which can facilitate larger entry between the locations and a few of their legacy and rising markets.
Chairman Bryan additionally pointed to “intensive strategic advertising and marketing initiatives” which might be being executed to draw guests to the area to take pleasure in its tradition and heritage, together with its carnivals and festivals.
He famous that the CTO is happy that the ICC (Worldwide Cricket Council) Males’s T20 World Cup 2024 is being hosted in a number of locations bringing not solely groups but in addition their loyal followers to the area and additional elevating consciousness and selling the varied choices of Caribbean locations to world audiences.
“Therefore, the Caribbean’s prospects seem extremely promising, with extra regional locations poised to both match or surpass the arrival figures recorded in 2019. Anticipated development 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,” concluded Chairman Bryan.
Preliminary knowledge for 2023 confirmed that Caribbean locations acquired an estimated 31.1 million cruise visits, reflecting a rise of 11.3 million visits or 56.8% in comparison with 2019. This degree established a brand new report for the regional cruise sector, surpassing the earlier report of 2019 by 2.4%. Pent-up demand and the resumption of operations drove sturdy bookings for Caribbean cruises, together with enhancements in cruise infrastructure similar to bigger ships, enhanced services, itineraries, and shore excursions.
