caribbean tourism industry

Contemporary Issues Within Caribbean Economies pp 235–264 Cite as

Caribbean Tourism Development, Sustainability, and Impacts

• David Mc. Arthur Baker 3  
• First Online: 09 June 2022

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The Caribbean economy is highly dependent on the tourism industry and the protection of the natural and cultural attractions on which it depends is critical. To address this concern, this chapter provides a snapshot of the progress that has been made on sustainable tourism development in the Caribbean region. There is now more demand from the traveling public for industries to be environmentally friendly and in order to continue to use tourism as a means of economic advancement, sustainable practices must be adopted. The evidence suggests that there are great economic, sociocultural, and environmental impacts of tourism in the Caribbean region that are both positive and negative. The actions of the accommodations sector are commendable but there is the need for all major stakeholders to better manage the negative impacts of tourism development. The Caribbean Tourism Organization has developed a policy framework which consists of guiding principles and integrated policies regarding sustainable tourism development, The Caribbean Sustainable Tourism Policy and Development Framework. A shock, such as COVID-19, can lead to economic collapse as communities heavily dependent on tourism have no capacity to respond to the loss of their primary revenue source. However, in order to strengthen the resilience of small island tourism development, the Caribbean region is transitioning toward community-driven solutions through innovation, employee training, upgrades, greater digitalization, and environmental sustainability.

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Baker, D.M.A. (2022). Caribbean Tourism Development, Sustainability, and Impacts. In: Cannonier, C., Galloway Burke, M. (eds) Contemporary Issues Within Caribbean Economies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98865-4_10

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Caribbean comeback: The region's post-pandemic tourism rebound leads the world

Few regions saw their tourism industries suffer more during the COVID-19 pandemic than the Caribbean did. But the region is now rebounding more strongly than any other — and for some surprising reasons.

The Caribbean lost a full tenth of its collective GDP in 2020 — the worst year of the pandemic — and the big reason was that tourism, which accounts for a full 14 percent of that GDP, dropped by two-thirds.

But travel data firms like ForwardKeys now show Caribbean tourism enjoying the world’s best post-pandemic recovery. In the first two months of this year, the Caribbean’s international arrivals numbers were down only 1% compared to the same period in 2019.

By contrast, Europe’s numbers were still 25% behind — and Asia’s were 54% short.

Leading the way was the U.S. Virgin Islands, which saw a 22% arrivals increase, although the U.S. territory's pandemic recovery benefitted from U.S.-supplied vaccines and economic relief.

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One key reason appears to be a jump in post-pandemic travel to the Caribbean from South America — a region that usually sends its tourists to Miami. That shift is due largely to the fact that Panama is now a more active airport connection hub for South Americans to Caribbean destinations.

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Caribbean Tourism and Development

by Yorghos Apostolopoulos and Sevil Sönmez | Dec 18, 2002

A Havana street scene. Photo by Andrew Klein.

​Mass charter tourism is the cornerstone of development plans in the Caribbean. Unparalleled tourism investment in the post-World War II era has boosted a tourist influx of unprecedented dimensions, the world’s largest peacetime population movement, especially in developing insular regions. The heavy influx of tourists has contributed to significant economic gains in Caribbean nations. However, it has simultaneously inflicted a plethora of long-term adverse consequences, including the emergence and diffusion of infectious diseases. Paradoxically, while the sustainable development of the Caribbean requires the control of infections and diseases, travel and tourism actually produce the facilitating conditions for their very emergence.

Tourism, the dominant economic activity of the Caribbean islands, reaches higher than 90% of Gross Domestic Product in many islands. At the same time, this vital source of income has also been identified as a major threat to the region’s sociocultural, ecological, and public health sustainability. These include spatial and socioeconomic polarization, uneven development, ecological degradation, domination of regional political economies, management repatriation, rising alienation among locals, and structural under-development. Such negative externalities of tourism have eclipsed the potential for equitable social, sectoral, and regional benefits, especially considering that mass tourism was expected to demonstrate the greatest positive impact. Further, this unprecedented growth has resulted in a surplus of accommodations and its subsequent consequences, inflationary pressures causing dramatic rises in the cost of living, labor and other resource shortages, and a failure to integrate tourism with other sectors.

The conventional mass tourism model must undergo a significant overhaul to avoid undermining local communities, ecological and social systems. This means encouraging different types of tourists and tourism, spreading tourism over more diverse destinations, and thinking about products in markets, in short, profound structural changes in the tourist industry. These modifications must include interregional differentiation, diverse regional tourism production, and maximized economic benefits in both the informal and formal sectors over an entire region. All this can be accomplished by initiating effective interlinkages between tourism and other economic sectors, by assuring equity and encouraging local involvement, by incorporating environmental considerations into policy making and tourist product development, and by assuring continuity and adjustability of the region’s tourism development within its wider environment. Further, considering the tourism industry’s vulnerability to uncontrolled internal and external shocks (i.e., recession, natural disasters, geopolitical conflicts, epidemic disease), the welfare of the littoral Caribbean may be undermined and ultimately constrained by neglect of the critical importance of social and geographic ecology.

HEALTH REPERCUSSIONS OF CARIBBEAN TOURISM

While microbial adaptation and change most often account for the origin of diseases, international travel has been linked with an explosion of disease propagation in several geographic regions. When people travel, not only do they carry their genetic makeup, disease pathogens and vectors, and accumulated immunologic experience, but they also transport their capacity to introduce diseases into new regions. Like other exchangeable goods, the diffusion of disease through traveling human populations traces the structure of social networks, as various diseases travel along different structural routes.

The Caribbean already suffers from problems associated with underdevelopment and endemic and climate risks. However, the annual influx of millions of mass tourists to the Caribbean constitutes an added pathway for the diffusion of infections and diseases. It also sets the stage for intermingling diverse genetic pools and cultures. The public health repercussions affect the host population, as well as the traveler, in ways previously unknown and unanticipated. The tourist brings these public health repercussions back home, and both ecosystems receive their impact. The global leisure revolution, ongoing improvements in transport media, and movement between diverse climatic zones (exemplified by global warming and climate change) have exacerbated the vulnerability of travelers to infectious diseases. Beyond the illnesses induced by travel itself, the exposure to unfamiliar infectious agents and demonstration of risky behaviors heightened by the vacation setting and culture, have the potential to cause enormous health strains on the parties involved.

Travel health risks in the Caribbean, ranging from malaria and dengue fever to HBV and dysentery, differ by types of travel. However, mass tourists are the travelers most at risk for infection. Furthermore, the magnitude of health consequences of mass tourism largely depends upon the volume and scope of tourists, as well as health determinants related to the process of travel. The tourist influx bridging disparate population health determinants often crosses gaps in socioeconomic development and public health practices with analogous consequences.

As is the case in most littoral areas, risky behavioral patterns involving substance misuse and casual/unprotected sexual encounters constitute a prevalent hazard in the Caribbean islands particularly due to the pervasiveness of “sun, sea, sand, and sex” tourists. Moreover, the tourist-based commercial sex industry, fueled by the eagerness of certain travelers to seek out commercial sex opportunities while on a Caribbean vacation provides prostitutes with ample opportunities to give sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) to travelers in the absence of state control and regulation. Further, similarly risky encounters occur between “beach boys” and white foreign women, between locals and “exotic” visitors, and between pedophiles and victims of child sex tourism. In the Caribbean, as in many other developing tourist regions, informal sector tourism is inseparable from the sexual exploitation of women and children. Sex tourism is based on networks that provide services such as tourist guides, prostitutes, brothels, and massage parlors and often serve foreign sex tourists as well as local customers. Minors in particular are attracted to working in sex tourism by the lure of foreign tourists’ wealth and consumerism. Sex tourism, homophobia, and poverty have been blamed for the AIDS increase in the Caribbean, which has the second highest rate of HIV infection after Africa. Surprisingly, the Caribbean along with Latin America continues to be perceived as an attractive destination by sex tourists.

Preconceived images of “exotic” local women have fueled the idea that they are full of sexual energy or that they only think about sex. These images are often promoted as part of the amenities of a tourist holiday package by some islands, such as the Dominican Republic. On others, such as Haiti, sex between adult male tourists from the U.S. and local children has remained a part of the informal commercial sex industry for many years. Of course, while tourism is not the cause of minors’ sexual exploitation, it does provide easy access to vulnerable children. Therefore, the acute importance of regulation and health surveillance of the commercial sex industry is self-evident, particularly as it intersects with travelers.

HEALTH POLICY FOR A GLOBALIZED INFLUX

The globalization process has dramatically transformed global tourist patterns. As there are clear indications that human mobility will further intensify over the coming years, regardless of the setbacks experienced by the tourism industry resulting from the September 11 terrorist attack in the U.S., there are immense public health ramifications. Tourist health is practically treated as a hidden dimension of tourism and consequently neglected. Yet, both tourists in the Caribbean and host populations are increasingly exposed to new health problems as the circulation of pathogens and vectors increases due to intersecting epidemiological and sociocultural boundaries. Discrepancies in the level of knowledge and types of beliefs, attitudes toward diseases and health, and expectations for and access to health services or information are likely to exist between travelers’ home communities and the destinations they visit. Assessing and monitoring factors that affect health and health services for international tourists are crucial for anticipating and proposing changes and adaptations to tourists’ health needs. A clear understanding of the related causes and risk factors is critical for targeting adapted preventive interventions. The growing awareness of the dangers of HIV/AIDS and other STIs make this even more imperative, especially since such serious health risks can create irreversible problems for the Caribbean’s predominantly “4S” tourist market.

The health risks of travelers are related not solely to the destination and direction of travel but also to the movements of tourists across epidemiological, behavioral, and geographic boundaries. The multi-directionality of tourist flows in the Caribbean and their demographic composition can essentially determine the health characteristics of populations. Since tourism is of such importance to the Caribbean, the promotion of travel health represents a crucial strategy because subsequent public policies, if properly initiated, could make significant contributions to the maintenance and growth of international economies. While travel health promotion may have the correct intentions, its shortcomings are often due to unplanned and uncoordinated activities within the amorphous, acephalous, and fragmented tourist industry, to the narrow focus of much contemporary medical education, to widespread ignorance of medical (disease) geography, and to the associated risks of disease importation and spread from tourist migration.

Because of increasing global tourism and emerging and re-emerging infections, the World Health Organization and World Tourism Organization have been urged to cooperate on a strategic initiative to provide guidelines for future action. The global public health ramifications of tourism can only be mitigated by the synergistic efforts of these international organizations. The emphasis of the initiative rests on the importance of working with primary stakeholders involved in and influenced by global tourism patterns. The “healthy travel and tourism” campaign has resulted. The campaign aims to define constructive action priorities to avoid health problems, to promote health among both travelers and host communities, and to establish healthy tourism networks among private sector representatives (such as tour operators and travel agencies) and host country authorities. Travel health promotion as well as mitigation planning, ongoing disease prevention, hazard mapping and surveillance, and risk assessment bolstered by sociomedical research are critical for a sustainable tourism sector in the Caribbean.

Winter 2002 ,  Volume I, Number 2

Yorghos Apostolopoulos  is a Research Associate Professor of Sociology and  Sevil Sönmez  is an Associate Professor of Tourism Management, both at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. Their work delves into development, health, population/tourism, and the epidemiology of migration.

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Tourism in the Caribbean – The Way Forward to Recovery

On Thursday, 2nd July The Caribbean Council hosted the latest of its LIVECaribbean webinar series on “Tourism in the Caribbean – The Way Forward to Recovery”. We were privileged to have three fantastic tourism speakers:  Vincent Vanderpool Wallace – Principal Partner at The Bedford Baker Group; David Weatherson – Business Development Manager at Sun Group; and Patricia Affonso-Dass – Group General Manager of Ocean Hotels and President of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, who each shared with us their experiences and lessons learned during the COVID-19 crisis.  Some of those insights are set out below. 

What is clear is that tourism will be different after COVID-19 and, while the sector has been impacted on an unprecedented scale, there are valuable lessons to be learned and positive changes to be implemented.

COVID-19: Impact

The magnitude of the COVID-19 crisis – in terms of its economic impact – has been greater than any known shock to the Caribbean. The global tourism industry has taken a “nuclear hit”, the airline industry is tarmacked, and thousands of businesses are shuttered as closed borders are only now progressively reopening in the region.

Between March and May 2020, estimates show that global lockdown measures have resulted in a US$6bn loss in tourism earnings and a US$2bn loss in tax revenue from tourism-related activity in the Caribbean. One million temporary job losses related to tourism alone have also been reported. According to the UN WTO, tourism arrivals to the region had declined by 22% in March and forecasts estimate a decline of up to 78% by the end of the 2020. 

Much remains completely out of the control of the region, in which most governments took swift and decisive action to contain the spread of COVID-19 and to flatten the curve. The Caribbean’s response to supress the virus has, for the most part, been a success with some islands managing to keep the infection rate at zero for weeks. This has not been the case for many of the region’s key source markets, where COVID-19 continues to spread. The region will not be able to open its borders to source markets that do not meet health pre-requisites for travel.

The Caribbean therefore remains dependent on scientific developments to monitor, treat and prevent the spread of COVID-19. The absence of a vaccine, and a lack of rapid and widely available tests place serious constraints on the Caribbean’s process of reopening to tourism. 

How can the region move forward? Many lessons are being learned by the private and the public sector. 

Tourism permeates nearly every aspect of the region’s economies

The sector has proven a crucial source of employment, particularly for the islands in the region, as the only sector able to absorb a wide set of skills. It has proven a pivotal generator of wealth and income, as well as tax revenue both through direct and indirect taxes. It is also a sector through which economic diversification can be achieved, by providing opportunities for destinations to test the receptiveness of potential consumers of, for example, cultural or financial products.

Given the importance of tourism, governments will need to collaborate with the private sector and enable them to pave a path forward. Of note, governments are being encouraged to rethink ways that the sector is taxed, including taxes on air travel, in order to create incentives and remove obstacles to tourism.

Continued regional collaboration on protocols and guidelines is needed 

In preparation for economic reopening, CARPHA, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and the Jamaica-based Global Resiliency and Crisis Management Centre, have collaborated to establish guidelines, protocols and provide training with the aim of building consumer confidence, and ensuring the safety of the region’s employees. National tourism associations have supported local and regional efforts with data collection and dissemination in order to inform a collaborative and coordinated approach. 

This downtime has also given the sector room to reflect on ways that the Caribbean can be made more commercially resilient. Post-COVID-19 travel arrangements remain an unknown, but as the region moves forward to recovery, it is evident that contractual terms with supplier partners will need to be adapted so that the sector is not left financially exposed to shocks. Payment terms and indemnity clauses are being reviewed to that end.

Commercial strategies will need to adapt 

Recovery is far from straight forward as the region relies on how well its source markets are able to weather the storm. Hotels, tour operators and airlines will likely try to appeal to a younger, less at-risk demographic, but will have to adapt their service offering to account for pressures on disposable incomes of potential travellers, and the possibility of a global recession. 

The Caribbean is reliant on the airline industry to get tourists to the region. Recovery speed will likely be impacted by reduced service, increased airfare, and the airline industry’s reliance on already stretched government aid to remain afloat. A more coordinated approach to making travel to and across the region more efficient and less costly will be needed to promote regional tourism. 

Business models will need to evolve, staffing needs will change, hospitality delivery, aesthetic and style will also need to adapt in keeping with health and safety requirements. 

Technology and data-literacy are now paramount

The crisis has also revealed the need of a more prevalent use of data and analytics. COVID-19 containment measures and the phasing out of lockdowns across the region have been guided by scientific data. The tourism sector is hoping that systematic data-driven decision making will now transfer to government policy and commercial planning in the tourism industry. 

There has been an unprecedented level of regional collaboration thanks to technology. Now tourism stakeholders across the Caribbean are collaborating on a variety issue areas without having to spend time and money on travelling. Quality Wi-Fi has therefore become a mandatory piece of infrastructure. 

Missed our webinar? Full recording now available, please contact [email protected] to learn more .

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Tourism in the Caribbean

The Caribbean has a very diverse culture as a result of the region’s rich history. Countries are home to many historical man-made attractions such as forts and colonial era structures, as well as many natural attractions, primarily pristine beaches all complemented by a warm tropical climate. It is no surprise that many countries in the region have sought to capitalize on these features by promoting the tourism industry, attracting visitors from around the globe. The tourism industry, primarily international tourism (by air and cruise), has become a vital part of Caribbean economies with many being heavily dependent on the sector not only for driving economic activity but also to generate much needed foreign exchange. Inter-regional tourism, while present, does not contribute on the same scale because of deficiencies in air connectivity in combination with a prohibitive relative ticket cost. Limited number of flights along with high taxes, fees, and charges (TFCs) on regional flights make it cheaper for travelers to fly outside of the region.

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) notes that eight out of the ten countries most dependent on tourism are from the Caribbean. Tourism contributes approximately 13.9% of GDP for the entire Caribbean, the highest share of any region in the world. The contribution of travel and tourism towards GDP for Caribbean countries is shown in Figure 1.

The reliance on the tourism sector has made the economies of the Caribbean very vulnerable to shocks in the global economy as well as the environment. The tourism sector is highly dependent on international conditions as was proven with the COVID-19 pandemic. Major source markets for the region are the United States of America (US), United Kingdom (UK), Canada, and France, making up 70% of all travelers entering the region in 2019 according to the WTTC. In the height of the pandemic, strict lockdown measures were introduced in these major markets, driving Caribbean economies to a virtual standstill.

Further to this, the Caribbean is also highly susceptible to natural disasters. According to the OECD, the Caribbean is the second most environmental hazard-prone region in the world, with natural disasters and climate change causing major economic and infrastructural damages. Recent examples of natural disasters that have struck the region are Hurricane Dorian in 2019 that made landfall in The Bahamas, causing roughly USD3.4 billion (over 25% of GDP) in damages; Hurricane Maria in 2017 which ravaged Dominica, destroying roughly 90% of the island’s infrastructure and costing an estimated USD1.3 billion (226% of GDP).

Tourism Industry Recovery

The tourism industry came to a standstill in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with lockdown measures and strict travel restrictions being imposed by governments to curb the spread of the virus. International travel was generally restricted to only what was absolutely necessary for 2020 and only eased slightly in the Q1 2021. It was not until the Q2 2021 that restrictions began to gradually ease as vaccines were more readily available around the world and the number of cases began to fall. The easing of restrictions saw the return of tourists as air travel resumed, even though with strict testing and vaccination requirements. While the cruise industry was essentially closed off for most of the pandemic, nearing the end of 2021 and throughout 2022, the industry reopened, though, its performance remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) shows that as of September 2022, global tourism has recovered significantly, only 27% below 2019 levels. Recovery in the Caribbean has been much more robust, with the region outpacing most of the world. UNWTO data indicates that monthly tourist arrivals for September 2022 were the same as 2019, though total arrivals for the year is 18% less. The recovery path for tourism in the Caribbean region is shown in Figure 2.

In the Caribbean, the recovery of the tourism industry varied greatly depending on the restrictions and travel policies in place in different countries. Countries such as Jamaica were able to recover more quickly than others in the region largely due to restrictions being eased at a much quicker pace than the rest of the region. Jamaica was amongst the first in the Caribbean to ease and subsequently remove travel restrictions for international travelers; in March 2022 travel authorization requirements were removed for entry into Jamaica, making the country open to all visitors. Given the significant contribution of tourism towards Jamaica’s GDP (29.1% of GDP in 2019), growth in the Jamaican economy began to recover, primarily driven by the tourism industry. Further, in April 2022, all testing requirements were removed for travelers entering Jamaica, which allowed for an improvement in processing speeds for travelers. As a result, the recovery of the tourism sector in Jamaica accelerated, with the months following, almost reaching 2019 levels. Figure 3 shows the total amount of tourist arrivals in Jamaica from 2019.

In the height of the pandemic, travel into the Eastern Caribbean ground to a stop. Data from the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) shows that for the period April 2020 – December 2020 total travelers entering the Eastern Caribbean was a mere 1,887, this is compared to 2.8 million for the same period in 2019. Latest data from the ECCB (March 2022) shows that while tourist arrivals have recovered, levels were still well below where it was pre-pandemic. Figure 4 shows total arrivals for the entire Eastern Caribbean.

On a country level, the rate of recovery has varied due to restrictions being eased at different periods from country to country. Some of the earliest countries to ease restrictions were St Lucia and Grenada, with the former easing restrictions in March 2022, and the latter removing all restrictions in April 2022. Countries such as St Vincent and the Grenadines have only recently removed pre-testing requirements for fully vaccinated travelers as of August 2022, whereas Antigua and Barbuda, and St Kitts and Nevis have fully removed all entry requirements that were in place.

Barbados’s economy depends on the tourism industry for a significant chunk of activity (29.5% of GDP in 2019). It is of no surprise that with the stagnation of the industry, the Barbadian economy suffered a severe contraction. With regards to COVID-19 restrictions, Barbados has been relatively conservative, keeping some travel restrictions in place until September 2022, with a gradual easing at key periods to aid in recovery efforts. The easing of restrictions and the subsequent recovery in tourism has been the main driver of growth for the past six quarters in the Barbados economy. Tourism arrivals do however remain well below pre-pandemic, reaching 71% of 2019 levels in September 2022. Figure 5 shows total tourist arrivals into Barbados.

The tourism industry in the Caribbean is expected to sustain its recovery, however, at a slower pace. Growth in the tourism sector for 2023 is projected by WTTC to slow further to 11.1% in the Caribbean region, much lower than 2021 and 2022 which saw growth of 36.6% and 27.2% respectively. Pent up demand, easing of COVID protocols by countries, and a forecasted improvement in the cruise industry will drive tourism growth in 2023 for the Caribbean. Downside risks to the industry include persistently rising prices, the threat of prolonged recessions in key tourist markets, as well as fluctuations in the currency market.

Two of the most significant source markets, the US and UK, are projected to slow further in 2023, with GDP forecasted by the IMF to grow at 1% and 0.32% respectively. This projected low growth comes after a less than stellar performance throughout 2022. The US economy contracted by 1.6% and 0.6% for Q1 and Q2 2022 before recording growth of 3.2% in Q3 2022, while in the UK, growth has been moderating sharply, with current forecasts showing persistent economic contractions until Q4 2023.

For the Eastern Caribbean, travelers are primarily from the US (43.4% of all travelers in 2019) with a notable contribution from the UK (16.6% in 2019). The slowdown of the US and UK economies will likely impact tourism activity as a result. Given the significance of US in the Eastern Caribbean, fluctuations in the US dollar (USD) will greatly affect the tourism demand. The Eastern Caribbean Dollar (XCD) is fixed to the USD at a rate of XCD2.7 to USD1; given the fixed exchange rate, tourist demand would fall if there is a strengthening of the USD as the relative cost to tourists would be higher.  The USD is currently forecasted to strengthen in 2023 as the rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve continue to make the dollar an attractive asset, serving as a downside risk to tourism in the Eastern Caribbean. Tourism growth will vary slightly among countries within the region; St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, as well as Antigua and Barbuda are expected to post the highest growth, largely in part to their recent removal of restrictions for travelers entering the country.

Jamaican tourist arrivals are forecasted to remain along its current trajectory, with the total number of arrivals improving with the return of the cruise industry. Jamaica operates a managed floating exchange rate regime, with the Bank of Jamaica gradually depreciating the value of the Jamaican dollar (JMD) in recent years to boost competitiveness of exports. This gradual depreciation of the JMD may be beneficial and can potentially improve tourism demand. Tourism is forecasted to return to pre-pandemic levels in Jamaica by mid-2023.

Barbados’s key tourist markets are the US and the UK, making up roughly 32% and 33% of all tourist arrivals in 2019. The projected slowdown of these economies in 2023 will negatively affect Barbados’ tourism sector. Similar to the Eastern Caribbean, Barbados operates a fixed exchange rate regime, at a rate of BBD2 to USD1. The forecasted strengthening of the USD will reduce the relative competitiveness of tourism in Barbados for tourists.

Notwithstanding the headwinds, the tourism industry is expected to continue along the path of recovery, supported by the complete removal of all pandemic restrictions as well as projected improvements in the cruise industry.

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Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO)

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) with headquarters in Barbados, is the Caribbean’s tourism development agency comprising membership of 24 countries and territories including Dutch, English, French and Spanish, as well as a myriad of private sector allied members.

The primary objective of the Caribbean Tourism Organization is to provide to and through its members the services and information necessary for the development of sustainable tourism for the economic and social benefit of the Caribbean people by:

providing an instrument for close collaboration in tourism among the various territories, countries and other interests concerned;

developing and promoting regional travel and tourism programs to and within the Caribbean;

providing members with opportunities to market their products more effectively to both the Caribbean and the international tourism marketplaces;

assisting member countries, particularly the smaller member countries with minimal promotional budgets, to maximize their marketing impact through the collective CTO forum;

carrying out advertising, promotions, publicity and information services calculated to focus the attention of the public upon the Caribbean as one of the world’s outstanding tourist destinations;

providing a liaison for tourism matters between member countries;

providing a sound body of knowledge on tourism through data collection, collation and research;

creating processes and systems for disseminating and sharing tourism information;

providing advice, technical assistance and consultancy services with respect to tourism;

providing training and education for Caribbean nationals and for international travel agents;

seeking to maximize the contribution of tourism to the economic development of member countries and the Caribbean through programs likely to increase foreign exchange earnings, increase employment, strengthen linkages between tourism and other economic sector like manufacturing and agriculture, and to reduce leakages from Caribbean economies;

encouraging coordination with respect to research and planning and the efficient allocation of local, regional and international resources at both government and non-governmental levels in tourism development;

researching and identifying the ecological effects of tourism with a view to recommending and /or initiating action aimed at minimizing the negative and enhancing the positive effects;

promoting the consciousness of the need to preserve both the natural and man-made beauty of the Caribbean environment and demonstrating its direct relationship to the development of an attractive tourism product;

developing a tourism product which is essentially Caribbean and which, through maximizing economic benefits, has minimal adverse social and psychological effects on the integrity of Caribbean peoples

Vision and Purpose

The CTO’s vision is to position the Caribbean as the most desirable, year-round, warm weather destination and our purpose is Leading Sustainable Tourism – One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean.

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Cruise industry in the Caribbean – statistics & facts

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• Premium Statistic Yacht and cruise ship passengers in Grenada 2010-2022

Visitor arrivals by cruise in Caribbean destinations 2021

Number of cruise passenger arrivals in the Caribbean in 2021, by destination (in 1,000s)

Number of cruise passengers in Mexico in 2022, by port (in 1,000s)

Cruise passenger traffic at the port of Cozumel 2013-2022

Number of cruise passengers at Cozumel port in Mexico from 2013 to 2022 (in millions)

Cruise tourism volume at Old San Juan 2010-2022

Number of cruise passengers at the port of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico from 2010 to 2022 (in 1,000s)

Busiest Jamaican cruise ports 2018-2021, by number of visitor arrivals

Leading cruise ports in Jamaica from 2018 to 2021, by number of passenger arrivals (in 1,000s)

Cruise visitor arrivals in Turks & Caicos 2013-2022

Number of cruise passenger arrivals in the Turks and Caicos Islands from 2013 to 2022 (in 1,000s)

Yacht and cruise ship passengers in Grenada 2010-2022

Number of tourists who arrived by sea in Grenada from 2010 to 2022, by type of transport (in 1,000s)

Origin of travelers

• Premium Statistic North American cruise travelers in Caribbean 2019-2022
• Premium Statistic European cruise travelers in Caribbean 2019-2022
• Premium Statistic South American cruise travelers in Caribbean 2019-2022
• Premium Statistic Asian cruise travelers in Caribbean and South America 2019-2022

North American cruise travelers in Caribbean 2019-2022

Number of North American cruise passengers in the Caribbean from 2019 to 2022 (in 1,000s)

European cruise travelers in Caribbean 2019-2022

Number of European cruise passengers in the Caribbean from 2019 to 2022 (in 1,000s)

South American cruise travelers in Caribbean 2019-2022

Number of South American cruise passengers in the Caribbean from 2019 to 2022 (in 1,000s)

Asian cruise travelers in Caribbean and South America 2019-2022

Number of Asian cruise passengers in the Caribbean and South America from 2019 to 2022 (in 1,000s)

Expenditures

• Premium Statistic Cheapest U.S. cruise lines in the Caribbean 2024
• Premium Statistic Average cruise traveler spend per person in the Dominican Republic 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic Mexico: expenditure of international cruise excursionists per capita 2016-2023
• Basic Statistic Cruise tourists' spending in Costa Rica 2010-2022

Cheapest U.S. cruise lines in the Caribbean 2024

Most affordable cruise trips from the United States in the Caribbean in January 2024 (in U.S. dollars), by line

Average cruise traveler spend per person in the Dominican Republic 2012-2022

Average per capita expenditure of cruise passengers in the Dominican Republic from 2012 to 2022 (in U.S. dollars)

Average expenditure of international same-day visitors who traveled by cruise to Mexico from 2016 to 2023 (in U.S. dollars)

Cruise tourists' spending in Costa Rica 2010-2022

Expenditure by cruise passengers in Costa Rica from 2010 to 2022 (in million U.S. dollars)

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Caribbean Tourism Industry Remains Hopeful of Gradual Rebound

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (13 Jan., 2022) – The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) remains positive about the continued rebound of the tourism industry even in the face of the uncertainty caused by the ongoing pandemic.

Over the past eighteen months, Caribbean destinations, without exception, have shown their resilience in creating strategies for recovery, incorporating frequently updated travel protocols, and collaborations with regional and international partners in the areas of health and economic support and development. Recovery in each instance, has taken place while ensuring the health and safety of residents and visitors alike.

The year 2021 has given us an indication that there is light at the end of what has been a long tunnel which began in March 2020. By mid-2021, we saw a turnaround in tourism activity, with the Caribbean exceeding the global average for stayover arrival growth and tourism’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP).  During the third quarter of 2021, there were 5.4 million tourist arrivals to the region, almost three times the arrivals for the same period in 2020, but still 23.3 per cent below 2019 levels. Preliminary reports suggest that this progress continued through to the end of the last quarter. Consequently, it is estimated that tourist arrivals for 2021 will exceed 2020 levels by 60 to 70 per cent.

As we begin 2022, once again grappling with the effects of a new variant which is also affecting international travel adversely, we are heartened by the recovery experiences and the lessons learnt in 2021.

These experiences and lessons have taught us that travel and hospitality can co-exist with the pandemic affecting both our destinations and markets. While the results to date have not indicated a return to 2019 levels, the exceptional results recorded in the summer to year-end period of 2021 show that a scaled or gradual rebound is likely and very possible by the end of 2022.

Recovery strategies, continuously being adapted to existing circumstances, based on continued partnerships and collaboration, advocating for safe and healthy visitor experiences and prioritising the health of residents, have proven to be the formula for recovery of the sector.

The year 2022 is being observed as the year of wellness in the Caribbean, with a focus on renewal. Given the Caribbean’s unique diversity, destination by destination, visitors to our shores will discover endless options to be rejuvenated in the region. Similarly, we encourage Caribbean nationals to explore and rediscover the diversity within their own destinations and those around them.

Even as we work on our short-term strategies for recovery of the sector, we urge longer term approaches to promote sectoral sustainability. Building on our 2021 World Tourism Day message, we encourage moving towards social inclusion and creating smart destinations based on smart businesses as key planks which will lead to sustainability. Our human resources, which are our key assets, are critical to the success of the sector. During 2022, the CTO hopes to build on a regional study of human resources to maintain the excellence of our hospitality.

Clearly there is a demand for the region’s tourism product, as shown by our ability to outpace the global growth average for arrivals. It is our responsibility to ensure that we continue to position the region to meet this demand in new and refreshed ways.

Let us continue to rebuild together.

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Subscriber only, travel | cruise demand leaves pandemic in rearview with record passengers, more construction on tap.

MIAMI BEACH — The COVID pandemic drove the cruise industry to a standstill, but numbers released Tuesday signal the years of comeback are officially over with more expansion on tap.

More than 31.7 million passengers took cruises worldwide in 2023, said Kelly Craighead, Cruise Line International Association president and CEO, speaking at the annual Seatrade Cruise Global conference at Miami Beach Convention Center.

CLIA is the lobbying group for member cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Disney Cruise Line, Carnival, Norwegian, MSC and most other major brands.

The pandemic shut down sailing from March 2020 with only a small number of ships coming back online 18 months later in summer 2021. Cruise lines didn’t return to full strength until partially through 2022, so it wasn’t until a full year of sailing in 2023 that the industry could get a real handle on just what the demand had grown to as people returned to vacation travel.

“We are an industry that’s resilient and thriving all around the world, breaking records in ways we might never have imagined,” she said.

The 2023 total is 2 million more than the industry had in 2019. CLIA projects 34.1 million in 2024 growing to 34.6 million in 2025. It’s still a miniscule chunk of the overall travel pie of more than 1.3 billion, but cruise’s share is growing.

She noted that surveys of travelers who would consider a cruise for a vacation are at an all-time high, noting that 82% who had previously cruised said they would cruise again, but more importantly, among those who had never sailed, 71% would consider it.

The youngest generations — Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z — are the biggest drivers.

The fleet for the growing demand continues as well, including the introduction this year of the world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas.

She said CLIA member lines had more than 300 ships sailing globally for the first time in 2023, with 14 new ships that began sailing in 2023 and another eight expected before the end of the year. They have 88 new ships on order through 2028.

Already this year, both Royal Caribbean Group and Carnival Corp. announced major new ship construction deals, and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings added to that this week with its order of eight more vessels across its three brands.

The heads of those groups were on stage to discuss where the industry is headed and enjoy their recent success.

Carnival Corp.’s president and CEO Josh Weinstein put it in a way that gained plaudits from fellow panelists and others at the conference.

“The concept of pent-up demand for cruising is gone,” he said. “We have been cruising for three years, right? It’s over. This is natural demand because we all provide amazing experiences. We delivered happiness to literally 31 million guests last year. And people see it, they feel it.”

A big part of what cruising missed during the pandemic he said was that word-of-mouth promotion that is needed to convince people to try their product.

“We now have 31 million people getting off our ships and going home and telling their friends and family who have never cruised before, ‘You don’t know what you’re missing.’ ‘This is amazing.'”

All of the leaders echoed the industry line that they offer a much better value than land-based vacations, but that the experience gap between the two has now shifted in their favor coming out of the pandemic.

“The appreciation for building memories with your friends and family coming out of COVID is at extraordinarily high levels,” said Jason Liberty, president & CEO at Royal Caribbean Group. “Also wealth transfer, right? Grandparents wanting to see that wealth transfer live, watching their kids and their grandkids experience that is also at an all-time high. … We have the secular trends of people buying less stuff, they want experiences. We’re in the experience business.”

Another bright aspect to the industry has been the spillover effect of all of the new ships since the pandemic, said Harry Sommer, president & CEO at Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.

“Their new products are so extraordinary, and so much better than what was delivered back in ’15, ’16 and ’17, that it’s driving additional excitement for the entire industry,” Somer said. “When any new ship is delivered, no matter whether it’s part of our portfolio or the other portfolios, demand improves for all of us because it adds excitement to the industry.”

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This Is Why Colombia’s Tourist Industry Is Booming

D espite facing several challenges, Colombia’s tourism sector exhibited remarkable resilience and growth in 2023. The country welcomed a record 5,869,869 non-resident tourists, a 24.3% increase from 2022 and a 173.6% increase from 2021. This surge in international tourism played a pivotal role in substantially boosting the Colombian economy, which grew by 0.6% in 2023. These tourism figures, provided by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism , underscore the nation’s impressive tourism boom, with Medellín emerging as a critical player in this growth.

It’s worth noting that the tourism sector’s resurgence post-pandemic contributed to its impressive performance in 2023. International tourism surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 29.1%. Migration Colombia’s data revealed a consistent increase in foreign arrivals, further solidifying the positive outlook for tourism in the country. Medellín, in particular, saw 659,097 international visitors. These numbers, highlighting its allure as a cultural and digital nomad hub, further propelled Colombia’s tourism success. Moreover, Colombia’s natural attractions, including the Andes Mountains and the beaches of the Caribbean coast, continue to attract travelers from around the globe. 

Challenges Faced

Despite the sector’s growth, Colombia continues to face sex and drug tourism concerns that jeopardize the tourism industry’s long-term viability and security. The presence of sex tourism and its exploitation of vulnerable people, together with the continuation of the illegal drug trade, necessitates immediate attention. So, ensuring the safety of visitors, particularly in the face of recent spikes in violent crime against foreigners in cities like Medellín, has become a crucial challenge for the sector. 

Preserving Colombia’s tourism attractiveness requires the sector to prioritize sustainable growth and safety measures. This will guarantee that tourism promotes cultural appreciation, economic prosperity, and safety for everyone. Furthermore, visitors play a crucial role in fostering ethical enterprises. Travelers need to avoid establishments associated with exploitation, leading to a favorable impact on Colombia’s tourism economy as a whole.

Exploring Colombia Safely

Colombia’s towns have everything from fascinating historical excursions to exciting nightlife. In Bogotá, the Museo del Oro displays an impressive collection of pre-Hispanic artifacts. At the same time, Medellín’s innovative public transport system allows for easy exploration of the city’s renowned botanical gardens and modern art galleries. To stay safe, explore these urban areas during daylight hours. 

Choose organized tours, which often provide additional security and local knowledge. The same goes for the coastal city of Cartagena, famed for its historic Old Town, encircled by ancient walls. Walking tours can help you safely enjoy its history under knowledgeable locals’ guidance. These tours are educational and an excellent way to ensure you don’t wander into less secure areas.

On the Caribbean coast, including popular spots like Santa Marta and the pristine Tayrona National Park, opt for well-known beaches with lifeguards and stay within designated swimming areas. Furthermore, always keep your accommodations and travel plans known to someone from home. Use reputable transport options like official taxis or trusted ride-sharing services, and avoid displaying valuables prominently.

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Toxic gas, livelihoods under threat and power outages: how a seaweed causes chaos in Caribbean

Leaders have failed to tackle invasion of sargassum, which may have a bumper year in 2024

S chools evacuated due to toxic gas. Smelly tap water at home. Tourist operators and fishers struggling to stay in business. Job losses. Power outages affecting tens of thousands of people at a time. Dangerous health problems. Even lives lost.

Such crises were some of the consequences of sargassum seaweed in the islands of the Caribbean in 2023, which have become common in the region since 2011, when massive blooms began inundating the shorelines in the spring and summer months.

On 18 April 2023 in Guadeloupe, the air-quality monitoring agency Gwad’Air advised vulnerable people to leave some areas because of toxic levels of gas produced by sargassum. Six weeks later, about 600 miles to the north-west, it blocked an intake pipe at an electricity plant at Punta Catalina in the Dominican Republic. One of the facility’s units was forced to temporarily shut down, and a 20-year-old diver named Elías Poling later drowned while trying to fix the problem.

In Jamaica, during the months of July and August, fishers found themselves struggling through another season as floating sargassum blocked their small boats and diminished their catch.

“Sometimes, the boats can’t even come into the creek,” said Richard Osbourne, a Jamaican fisher. “It blocks the whole channel.”

In the British Virgin Islands (BVI), most of Virgin Gorda’s 4,000 residents had to deal with sporadic water shut-offs and odorous tap water for weeks after sargassum was sucked into their main desalination plant last August.

And in Puerto Rico, a highly unusual late-season influx inundated the beaches of the Aguadilla area for the first time, leaving residents such as Christian Natal out of work for a week when it shut down businesses, including the jetski rental company where he works.

These people were among the thousands affected by sargassum blooms last year alone in the Caribbean, where about 70% of the population of about 44 million lives near the coast, according to the World Bank .

Scientists have blamed the explosive growth of the seaweed on global pollution, climate breakdown and other international problems that Caribbean islands did little to cause and lack the political power to resolve.

“Seaweed must be seen as an impact of global warming, with the opening up of the right to compensation on the grounds that we are small, vulnerable islands,” said Sylvie Gustave-dit-Duflo, the vice-president of the Guadeloupe region in charge of environmental issues and president of the French Biodiversity Office.

She added that the countries of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) – which include 15 member states and five associate members that are territories or colonies – recorded economic losses of about $102m due to sargassum in 2022 alone.

“These figures do not take into account the losses recorded in all the other Caribbean countries, including the French islands,” she said. Nor do they take into account yearly costs of beach cleaning estimated to be as high as an additional $210m .

Gustave-dit-Duflo and other experts say the global problem requires a global response. But so far, the Caribbean has failed to coordinate even a region-wide strategy and the international community has largely turned a blind eye. National-level responses, which in most Caribbean countries include a draft management strategy that has not been officially adopted or adequately funded, have done little to take up the slack.

Most sargassum influxes are predictable, and the worst impacts are often preventable. But again and again Caribbean governments have waited to react until the crisis stage. And even then the responses have often focused on protecting the tourism industry while other groups, such as local communities or fishers, are left behind.

As a result, the health, livelihoods and natural environment of residents have been endangered, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on reactive emergency responses that experts said could have been better spent on prevention, planning and mitigation.

At the conference of the parties to the UN framework convention on climate change (Cop28) last December in Dubai, Gustave-dit-Duflo helped to unveil a French proposal for the sort of international response she said was urgently needed. It included forming a global coalition to better understand the problem, ensuring that sargassum is on the agenda of major international forums, and continuing previous work in partnership with the EU, among other measures.

But to implement the proposal, governments in the Caribbean and further abroad will have to overcome hurdles that have previously stymied cooperation, including political and legislative differences, funding shortages and debate about whether to prioritise health, the environment, the economy or other areas.

In the meantime, sargassum has already started to arrive on the Caribbean’s shores once again. And once again, the region is not ready.

The ‘ great Atlantic sargassum belt’

Sargassum is not a bad thing in itself. Nor is it new to the Caribbean, where it has always washed ashore in modest quantities in the spring and summer, providing habitat for marine life and helping build beaches as it decays.

But in 2011 sargassum suddenly swamped shorelines without warning. It piled several feet high on some beaches. It stank like rotten eggs as it decomposed and shut down resorts, dealing a major blow to a tourism sector in some areas of the Caribbean that were still struggling to recover from the 2008-2009 global recession. It gave coastal residents headaches, nausea and respiratory problems. It disrupted turtle nesting sites and threatened reefs and mangroves.

As sargassum continued to flood the Caribbean and the western coast of Africa 8,000 miles away, scientists made a surprising discovery. Historically, most of the seasonal influx in the Caribbean had come from a 2-million-square-mile gyre in the northern Atlantic Ocean: the Sargasso Sea.

“The Sargasso [Sea] has been around for hundreds of thousands of years, and it’s an ecosystem that was perfect, so to speak,” said Elena Martínez, an oceanographer based in the Dominican Republic. “It was there, surrounded by four oceans gyres – or currents – that kept it perfect.”

But scientists soon learned that most of the new Caribbean influx was not coming from the Sargasso Sea any more: it was coming from a new sargassum ecosystem that had formed in the southern Atlantic Ocean.

The area, named “the great Atlantic sargassum belt” in a 2019 article in Science is now visible from space, and its length often exceeds 5,000 miles, according to scientists who use satellites to track it.

Its cause is still debated. Dr Brian Lapointe, a sargassum researcher, sees the Atlantic belt as a global version of a smaller bloom he witnessed in 1991 that shut down a nuclear power plant and other electricity facilities along the Florida coast.

Since the 1980s the world population has nearly doubled, explained Lapointe, a professor at Florida Atlantic University. This in turn has led to a massive increase in the sargassum-boosting nutrients washing out of major rivers such as the Mississippi in the US, the Amazon and Orinoco in South America, and the Congo in Africa.

“To grow that world population we’ve used these fertilisers, we’ve deforested along all the major rivers in the world,” he said. “The nitrogen has gone up faster than the phosphorus from all these human activities, including wastewater; sewage from the increasing human population.”

Another likely culprit is climate breakdown. Martínez said warming waters may have disrupted the giant gyre that held the Sargasso Sea in place for thousands of years, releasing sargassum to float south and form the new belt.

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The new belt also receives additional nutrients from the Sahara dust that frequently blows across the Atlantic, which itself could be exacerbated by climate impacts such as the expansion of deserts as temperatures rise. Some scientists also argue that warming oceans provide a more sargassum-friendly growing environment.

Experts tend to agree that the great Atlantic sargassum belt is here to stay – and that it is a global problem that needs a global response.

That much was clear by 2018, when the belt grew to a record size that was estimated to weigh 22m tonnes and much of the Caribbean saw its worst-ever inundation. The season spurred increasing calls for a collaborative international response.

But broad international action has not materialised. Despite a growing patchwork of studies and projects across the region, various attempts by the UN and others to coordinate a Caribbean-wide response have been largely stalled by funding shortages, geopolitical issues, the Covid-19 pandemic and other factors.

No Caribbean strategy is in place, and a region-wide warning and monitoring centre proposed in 2019 has not been established.

In 2022, the Saint Lucian sargassum researcher Dr Bethia Thomas produced videos about the village of Praslin Bay and two other nearby communities as part of her doctoral thesis. In each video, several residents listed complaints ranging from breathing problems to the destruction of fisheries to corroding jewellery.

“It affects how I breathe, and I also think it affects the children and the way that they function, because sometimes they’re so moody and they cannot sit and do the activities because it’s so awful,” a teacher said in the Praslin Bay video. “And I think it’s affecting us mentally.”

In the absence of a regional strategy, national sargassum management plans have been developed in most countries and territories in the Caribbean, including Saint Lucia, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the BVI, Anguilla and Montserrat.

But few have been officially adopted at the government level, and even fewer are adequately funded or closely followed.

“Sometimes the small communities get left behind,” Thomas said. “Maybe not intentionally, but in small island developing states with limited resources, you have to prioritise. And perhaps other things – like building a new hospital and constructing new roads, new schools – might take precedence over developing a sargassum management plan.”

Negligible investment from polluting countries

As residents experience health and economic consequences, Caribbean leaders have often complained about a shortage of money to deal with the crisis. Local funds, they said, are tied up with many competing priorities, including handling climate-related impacts such as hurricanes, droughts and flooding.

They also said the cost of the sargassum crisis should be shouldered in part by the larger countries mostly responsible for it, but that accessing international climate financing for the purpose was not easy.

A lack of funding and regional coordination has also stymied efforts to monetise the seaweed by finding a large-scale sustainable use for it.

“Even though there are so many things you can make with sargassum, the actual amount of sargassum that is used for products is still very low,” said Dr Franziska Elmer, a researcher based in Mexico.

Sargassum and Cop28: invasion starts to garner attention

The 2023 sargassum bloom in the Caribbean had mostly abated by 2 December when Gustave-dit-Duflo stood at a podium 8,000 miles away during a side event at the Cop28 meeting in Dubai.

As dignitaries looked on, she issued a stark warning about sargassum. “It is a very invasive and aggressive phenomenon, and through all the Caribbean it affects tourism, and all the economies of the region are based on biodiversity and tourism,” she told those gathered at the French pavilion on the sidelines of the conference. “The Caribbean has a lot of hotspots of biodiversity. So if we don’t act, in 20 years this marine biology, including the reef, will disappear from our coast.”

She said the French government wanted the issue to be discussed on one of the high-level panels of the United Nations conference on the oceans to be held in Nice, France, in June 2025.

“We manage sargassum at a local level, but this is not a phenomenon of an island,” she said. “It is the whole basin of the Caribbean and a part of the Atlantic. This is why all the countries that are impacted, we need to create an international coalition to be able to find means and ways to act.”

As countries work to establish an international response, time is of the essence for residents of the coastal Caribbean.

Shortly after Cop28 drew to a close, scientists at the University of South Florida estimated the sargassum floating in the tropical Atlantic Ocean at about 5m metric tonnes, compared with a December average of about 2m. By February, the mass had increased to about 9m tonnes – the second-highest quantity ever recorded for the month.

In other words, another record-setting sargassum season could have just started.

This article, coordinated by the Puerto Rico Center for Investigative Journalism and produced by the BVI Beacon, RCI Group Guadeloupe, América Futura, El País América, Television Jamaica and the Virgin Islands Daily News, is published here as part of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now . Reporters Rafael René Díaz Torres (Centro de Periodismo Investigativo), and Mariela Mejía (Diario Libre) collaborated in this investigation. This investigation is the result of a fellowship awarded by the Center for Investigative Journalism’s Training Institute and was made possible in part with the support of Open Society Foundations .

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