The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) says the region has recovered to within 85% to 90% of pre-pandemic arrival numbers in 2022 and expects to equal or exceed 2019 levels in the year ahead.
“The year 2022 and especially the second half of the year has been a very encouraging one for Caribbean tourism,” says Neil Walters, CTO’s acting Secretary General. “While we are still seeing elements of the effect of the pandemic on international travel, here in the Caribbean, we have noted a much more consistent pattern of travel, which is a good indicator of a return to normalcy and a path to 2019 levels.”
In its annual “New Year’s Message” issued Monday, the CTO noted that last year, the Caribbean was among the fastest-recovering regions globally and that some individual destinations achieved record-breaking performances, while others are expected to do so 2023.
“We have seen unprecedented levels of airlift into the region from our source markets and the aforementioned recovery has been very evident in both land based and cruise tourism,” the organization said, adding, “This speaks to the resilience of the sector and the positive perception of the region in our source markets, based on our hospitality, stability, connectivity, and our perennial well-earned status as a region for wellness.”
But the CTO cautioned: “Nevertheless, a few destinations will require a longer period to reach pre-pandemic levels” and added, “Of course, the gains we have recorded have not been achieved without challenge (and) many of those challenges continue today, compounding the latent effects of the pandemic and evolving into new challenges for the tourism sector and Caribbean economies in general.”
Among the concerns are a lack of intra-regional connectivity – especially in the Central, Southern and Eastern Caribbean, with the effect particularly acute in these sub-regions where several countries depended on intra-regional travel in the pre-pandemic era as one of their key source markets.
On the positive side, the CTO says the region has been able to ride out supply chain issues, the political unrest existing in some regions of the world, and the economic unrest which seems to be forever looming in our key source markets.
2023
The CTO says its aim in 2023 is to create mechanisms to ensure that the Caribbean remains in the top five of the fastest growing tourism regions in the world.
“The CTO… has started a process to reshape the organization to reposition it to be more relevant in the post-pandemic era,” organization chairman Kenneth Bryan (Cayman Islands) said. “In this way, the CTO can best lead the region in developing tourism into a more resilient and robust sector, confirming its significant contribution to positive regional economic growth.”
Among the actions undertaken will be to expand efforts to attract visitors from “untapped markets which are ripe for growth” – including the non-traditional markets outside of North America, the UK and Europe.
And while the Caribbean tourism sector’s key assets – its people and diverse cultural and natural resources – remain critical to the development of regional tourism, sufficient and sustainable funding, including foreign direct investment, are other critical factors.
“By focusing on the key pillars of the CTO’s work – research, product development including human resource development at all levels of the Caribbean, and marketing,” the message concluded, “the aim is to ensure the CTO’s continued leadership in the development of regional tourism and to overcome some of the challenges outlined above.”