Caribbean tourism looks forward with cautious optimism to the year ahead
The Caribbean Tourism Organisation, the authority on regional tourism statistics and performance, is forecasting six to seven percent growth this year, continuing an upward trend which began last September.
We are projecting that tourist arrivals will increase by between six and seven percent in 2019, as the damaged infrastructure in the hurricane-impacted destinations returns to capacity.
“Similarly, cruise arrivals should expand by a further four percent to five percent,” Ryan Skeete, Caribbean Tourism Organisation acting director of research revealed.
Skeete did caution of possible “significant headwinds to navigate,” including the outcome of the Brexit negotiations in the UK, the on-going trade war between the United States and China and potentially extreme weather events in the destinations and marketplaces.
Still, he said, with global demand for international travel expected to remain strong, underpinned by healthy economic activity, and with improved air connectivity helping to boost arrivals, the outlook for Caribbean tourism in 2019 was cautiously optimistic.
The Caribbean Tourism Organisation research director revealed that a robust 9.8 percent growth during the September to December period last year, led to a stronger-than-projected performance.
It was a significant turnaround from the previous eight months of decline.
“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, registering triple-digit increases during this period,” Skeete added.
The 29.9 million tourist visits in 2018 represented the second highest number of visitors to the Caribbean on record, surpassed only by the 30.6 million who visited in 2017.
And while this represented a 2.3 percent decline overall, it was better than the anticipated three percent to four percent fall-off.
“With a strong performance during the last four months of 2018, including a robust showing by countries impacted by the 2017 hurricanes, the evidence suggests that Caribbean tourism is on the upswing,” Skeete declared.
According to information compiled from Caribbean Tourism Organisation member countries, Canada was the strongest performing market – its 3.9 million visits represented a 5.7 percent rise.
The intra-Caribbean market had its best performance ever, reaching two million visitors, while South America produced 1.9 million tourist visits, representing a 3.6 percent increase.
Arrivals from Europe grew by a modest 1.3 percent, with UK arrivals remaining flat at an estimated 1.3 million.
However, the United States, which remains the region’s leading market, was down, with the 13.9 million American tourist visits representing a 6.3 percent fall.
This was due mainly to steep declines in arrivals to popular destinations impacted by the hurricanes, such as Puerto Rico, which was down by 45.6 percent, and St. Maarten, which fell by 79 percent.
This notwithstanding, there was a healthy 28 percent rise in arrivals from the US in the fourth quarter, reflecting the strong turnaround during this period.
from Breaking Travel News http://bit.ly/2SyPJyP
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