With a colourful Jamaican vibe and a reggae beat – not least at the Sandals closing night gala beach party – the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) held its 42nd annual Caribbean Travel Marketplace in Montego Bay last week, attracting approximately 1,200 international delegates from 25 countries (including many Canadians) to the region’s “most important” event, which proved to be the largest since 2007, and similarly the biggest in the region since the pandemic, eclipsing last year’s gathering in Barbados.
Expanded to include the third annual Caribbean Travel Forum, and for the first time, Marketplace Responsible Tourism Day, the four-day event captured the energy of a region that showed the fastest recovery from the pandemic and is already ahead of record 2019 international arrival levels by 13% in the first half of 2024.
“Overall, these are really strong numbers for the Caribbean,” CHTA President Nicola Madden-Greig stated during her State of the Industry address, highlighting findings from CHTA’s Performance and Outlook Survey, which showcases the resilience and growth of the region’s tourism sector. “This is something we need to take an applause for because it was not easy.”
She added, “When we think back to the start of the pandemic, it was said that the Caribbean was the most tourism-dependent region in the world (and) that we would be the last to come out of COVID; and have the most difficulties and that it would probably take us until 2025-26 before we would recover. Well, we proved that wrong, and not only have recovered, we have grown.”
Importantly, Madden-Greig noted that tourism in the CHTA’s 33 member countries is a critical economic engine that provides 15.6% of all jobs in the region – a stat that means “We employ a hell of a lot of people!”
Authored by leading travel intelligence agency ForwardKeys and the CHTA, the report revealed that the top-performing destinations in the Caribbean for the first half of 2024 were Puerto Rico, followed by the Dominican Republic and Cancun in the Mexican Caribbean. Mid-tier destinations such as Belize and Curaçao also posted impressive growth.
In addition to overall performance, the report delved into specific market segments, including business travel, family vacations, and high-yield visitors. Though business travel lags behind leisure, destinations such as the US Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Dominican Republic show substantial growth in this segment. Family travel is also rising significantly, with Curaçao, Belize and Aruba leading the way. And premium class travel, catering to luxury travellers, outperforms standard-class bookings.
Canada
Canadian arrivals numbers to the Caribbean – over three million – reached 88.1% of pre-pandemic levels in 2023 and represented 46.1% increase over 2022. The most preferred destination was Jamaica.
Correspondingly, this country posted over a 14.1% increase in lift to the Caribbean with Toronto registering a 23% increase – most of any North American city.
Canadians also increasingly reached their Caribbean destinations via the US, with Charlotte (23%), Dallas (19%), Miami (18%), and Atlanta (12%) trending upwards.
Among the Canadian attendees at Marketplace were representatives of Air Canada/ACV, Westjet, Sunwing, and Transat, as well as Angella Bennett, Regional Director, Jamaica Tourist Board Canada.
Hotels
The Caribbean hotel sector experienced a remarkable turnaround in 2023, including a surge in the establishment of new hotels and resorts. According to STR, throughout the Caribbean, average room occupancy was approximately 74% in Q1, 2024. The top rates were registered by St. Lucia, Jamaica, and The Bahamas. Meanwhile, in the next three to five years, 46 hotel projects (and increasingly rapidly) with 18,000 rooms are in the pipeline for the region, some set to open this year.
Cruise
As for cruises, preliminary data for 2023 showed that Caribbean destinations received 31 million cruise visits, reflecting an increase of over 11 million visits or 57% compared to 2019. This level established a new record for the regional cruise sector, surpassing the previous record of 2019 by 2.4%. Pent-up demand and the resumption of operations drove strong bookings for Caribbean cruises, along with improvements in cruise infrastructure such as larger ships, enhanced facilities, itineraries, and shore excursions.
And projections indicate that the cruise sector will continue its upward track, with an estimated 34.2 million to 35.8 million cruise visits expected in the Caribbean in 2024. This anticipated expansion falls within the range of 10% and 15%.
“Cruising” said Madden-Greig, “is pretty much back where it needs to be.”
Inter-island travel
The CHTA hopes to see the continuation of the growth of inter-island travel, namely increased air connectivity – a niche undertaken by fast-growing Turks and Caicos-based interCaribbean Airways, which launched Kingston, Jamaica, to Barbados service in February, and now flies to 25 destinations in 17 Caribbean countries, including 450 city pairs. Airline CEO Trevor Sadler said six more destinations would be added this year.
Madden-Greig declared, “Multi-destination travel is very important for us, we have to keep working on this… and really emphasize that visiting the Caribbean is not just about saying, ‘I’ve been to one destination I know the Caribbean.’ You haven’t really experienced the Caribbean until you’ve gone to at least five, six, seven, or eight destinations – to have that diversity of experience. Each one is different.”
Events
The CHTA points to “the lure of events” as another key component of visitor interest to the Caribbean, including sporting events like this year’s ICC World Cup of Cricket (taking place across the region this summer) as well as music festivals and agricultural and Carnival events.
“The great thing about these activities is they really permeate into society – the coconut vendor, the person who makes the costumes for carnival… The small- and medium sized tourism entities really get an opportunity to get a piece of the tourism pie when these events (take place),” says Madden-Greig. “And we have to recognize that the international traveller is looking for these kinds of experiences. They really want to experience music and culture and food and be among the people. It is so important we recognize this trend, especially among the millennials and Gen-Zers.”
2024
In conclusion, Madden-Greig said prospects for 2024 for the Caribbean were “robust,” with growth forecast to range between 5 and 10%, potentially welcoming between 33.8 million and 35.4 million stay-over tourists, which would fully surpass pre-pandemic levels.
However, she emphasized that the industry and the region will continue to face an array of challenges, including planning issues (to keep up with growth), inflation, heightened geopolitical tensions and their anticipated impacts, in 2024.
But, she declared, “We’ve proved ourselves resilient. The biggest, fattest pandemic came and we said, ‘You’re not stopping us!’ We know we can bounce back; we know as a region we are strong. We’re committed people – we don’t fear change or challenge. We take it head on!”