Visitors spend US$37 billion in Caribbean

WESTERN BUREAU:

DESPITE A number of islands being ravaged by two powerful hurricanes, Caribbean tourism reached another major milestone i n 2017, surpassing 30 million stopover arrivals for the very first time.

The region, according to Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Acting Director for Research Ryan Skeete also experienced a whopping and hard-to-ignore US$37 billion in total visitor spending.

Skeete, who was delivering an address at the CTO Headquarters, Warrens, St Michael, Barbados, yesterday, further noted that the record-breaking performance was primarily supported by sustained economic growth in all of the Caribbean’s major source markets.

“Our major source market, the United States, grew by approximately 0.5 per cent to reach an estimated 14.9 million visits to the region. This performance was attributed to solid economic growth, a low unemployment rate, and high consumer confidence in the US,” Skeete pointed out.

IMPROVEMENT

“Arrivals from the European market totalled 5.8 million and improved by an estimated 6.2 per cent, the strongest growth among the main markets. Visits from the Canadian market rebounded in 2017, growing by 4.3 per cent compared to a decline of 3.1 per cent in 2016.”

Skeete added that several countries, notably, St Lucia (11 per cent), Belize (10.8 per cent), and Bermuda (10.3 per cent), reported double-digit increases in 2017 while the hurricane - affected countries recorded decreases ranging from -18 per cent to -7 per cent.

The contributing factors, he said, were that the countries that experienced the massive boom had greater air access from the source markets to the region and the realisation of significant investments, including hotels, to enhance the tourism product.