Report on the state of Caribbean tourism
Question: how is the Caribbean tourism industry doing these days?
Answer: It’s "holding its own, remaining afloat and resilient amidst turbulence in the marketplace. Tourist arrivals to the Caribbean region remained buoyant in 2011, continuing the recovery process which began in 2010," answers Sean Smith, a statistical specialist for CTO.
But he added at a State of the Industry News Conference that there are signs that tourism is "not yet out of the woods" because the figures revealed uneven growth among the destinations and revenue continued to lag arrivals.
Overall, the Caribbean welcomed an estimated 23.8 million tourists in 2011, a 3.3% rise over 2010 when just over 23 million stay-over visitors came to the Caribbean.
"Among the factors contributing to this performance were low consumer and business confidence and a weak US dollar," said Smith.
The larger destinations, including Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, continued the historical trend of leading growth in the region. This subgroup, which accounts for more than half of all arrivals to the region on an annual basis, grew by 4.2%, according to Smith.
The Caribbean recorded modest performances from all major source markets in 2011. Stay-over arrivals from the US were up 1.7% when compared to the previous year. Anguilla, Barbados, Belize and Curaçao were among the destinations with increased business from the US.
The hotel sector performed marginally better last year than it did in 2010.
According to Smith Travel Research, average room occupancy was 61.8% compared to 60.3% in 2010, while the average room rate reached $167.56 compared to $163.36 in 2010. "These results indicate some measure of recovery within this sub-sector," Smith said.
By David Wilkening
David
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