Caribbean Arrivals Rebound Outpacing Global Destinations

CDC travel advisories, ever-changeable health protocols and limited vaccine access remain formidable barriers, but Caribbean visitor arrivals are rebounding more quickly than any other global region, Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) officials said Monday.

Overnight, land-based visitors to the region still lag pre-pandemic totals. Caribbean visitor arrivals through May 2021 totaled 5.2 million, down 30.8 percent compared with the same period in 2020. CTO destinations hosted 31.5 million land-based visitors in pre-pandemic 2019.

Yet Caribbean arrivals substantially out-paced other global destinations, which collectively reported a 65.1 percent average arrivals decline through May of this year, CTO officials said in a statement. The Caribbean’s international visitor arrivals totaled 6.6 million in the first six months of 2021, representing a 12 percent decline compared with 2020.

The Caribbean’s first-half 2021 arrivals were hiked by a second-quarter arrivals surge of between “10 and 37 times greater than those in the corresponding months” in 2020, officials said. “In absolute terms, there was a steady improvement, as arrival numbers increased from one million in April to 1.2 million in May to 1.5 million in June.”

The region’s strong second-quarter performance was driven by U.S. travelers, as vacationers from the Caribbean’s primary market totaled 4.3 million in the first half of this year, a 21.7 percent increase over 2020.

CTO officials cited “contributing factors” as behind the region’s growth, including “the easing of some travel restrictions and increased airlift. The Caribbean tourism sector is known to be one of the most resilient in the world,” said Neil Walters, the CTO’s acting secretary-general.

Several CTO-tracked destinations are also reporting strong first-half 2021 arrivals. Puerto Rico’s arrivals rocketed from 135,146 during pandemic-stricken July 2020 to 553,554 in July of this year, eclipsing the territory’s all-time monthly record of 512,796 travelers, achieved in June of this year.

Driven by U.S. travelers, Antigua and Barbuda’s overnight visitors in July surpassed the dual-island nation’s totals during the same period in pre-pandemic 2019, said Charles Fernandez, the country’s tourism minister. He described tourism to the country as “booming.”

In August Jamaica recorded its one-millionth visitor since the country’s June 15, 2020 border reopening following the pandemic outbreak, said Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) officials.

“These are encouraging signs that the hard work our member countries have put into adapting to the changing environment of the pandemic is beginning to pay dividends,” Walters added.

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