Despite hurricanes Caribbean surpasses 30 million tourist arrivals
Two devastating hurricanes pounding multiple islands in the region failed to dampen demand too much for Caribbean vacations last year.
The Caribbean surpassed the 30 million arrivals milestone for the first time.
According to the Caribbean Tourism Performance Review, there was just a 1.7% drop off between July and December, including the hurricanes and their aftermath, which still affects many areas.
Yet this was offset thanks to a strong performance in the first half of 2017.
The region saw an overall increase of 1.7% in 2017 to reach 30.1 million for the year.
"Despite the severe challenges of 2017, more visitors arrived in the Caribbean, and they spent more. The Caribbean, with our highly competitive tourism product, has quite some distance to go in order to realize our full potential," said CTO secretary general Hugh Riley.
"As a region, we must acknowledge that to rebuild, develop and sustain the infrastructure and the image of the Caribbean, is an immense task. Resources will need to be developed, and realistic attention will need to be paid to the length of time it takes to rebuild an economy."
There is still room to improve numbers significantly, Riley said, with nearly one-third of room supply not being filled.
"Of every hundred rooms available in the Caribbean, on average, at least 30 are going empty every night. This tells us that we have an opportunity – indeed a responsibility – to market ourselves more effectively."
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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