Published on : Thursday, February 14, 2019
The Caribbean Tourism Organization on Wednesday estimated a 6 to 7 percent growth in travelers to the region for this year, as destinations gradually mend devastated infrastructure. In 2018, a less disastrous hurricane season facilitated in reviving the hospitality sector in hotspots like St. Barths, Anguilla, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the organization anticipates this to pick up throughout the new year.
“Even the destinations that were severely impacted by the 2017 hurricanes, despite registering overall double-digit declines last year, experienced a significant turnaround during the last four months,” said CTO’s acting director of research, Ryan Skeete, in a press briefing Wednesday.
Around 30 million tourists visited the Caribbean in 2018 in general, a 2.6 percent drop from 2017. In the wake of such a huge disaster as Maria, this decline was less than expected.
Also, cruise arrivals should grow in 2019, by about 4 to 5 percent, Skeete added. For companies like Carnival, this is good news, which reported a draw in terms of bookings to the region in the year post hurricane.
For 2018, the U.S. market was the only outlier in terms of strong tourism numbers. Visitors from different markets, like Canada, South America, Europe and the U.K., all increased or remained flat, while the US visitors dropped 6.3 percent. This is because of a major decline in U.S. travel to areas hit hardest by the hurricane, including a 45.6 percent drop in travel to Puerto Rico and a 79 percent drop in travel to St. Maartens.
Also, Skeete pointed out to not worry related to global trends which could diminish the predictable growth, and said the organization was remaining “cautiously optimistic.” This comprises the outcome of Brexit, the trade war between the China and the U.S. along with the ever-present threat of another severe weather event.
Tags: strong growth in tourism