Cuba and Dominican Republic see sharp drop in UK visitors
Fewer British holidaymakers visited the Caribbean in the first half of this year compared with the same period of 2018.
Official figures show that overall visitor numbers to the Caribbean were up 9.7% year on year, but British arrivals were down 1.7%.
The Caribbean Tourism Organization said this was mainly due to a 22% drop in visits to Cuba and a 15% fall in trips to the Dominican Republic.
The US market performed much better, with arrivals up 20.2% year on year.
There was a record 16.7 million cruise visits, 1.3 million more than in the same period of 2018.
The CTO forecast an overall increase of 5% to 7% in stay-over arrivals and a 4% to 5% rise in cruise passengers for the remainder of this year.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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