The Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) is seeing a favourable outlook for regional travel and tourism, despite global pressures such as high inflation, the war in Ukraine, energy crises, and an impending economic recession.

Delivering the 2022 Tourism Performance and Outlook Report in Bridgetown on Thursday (March 9), acting CTO Secretary general Neil Walters confirmed that the Caribbean had one of the quickest recovery rates globally in 2022 with 28.3 million registered tourist visits in 2022. This represents 88.6 per cent of the visitors, who arrived in 2019, which served as the baseline year for typical tourism activity before the pandemic.

He reported that international travel is expected to contribute to the region’s substantial gains already registered thanks to the robust United States market, which continues to drive the region’s recovery. There was an estimated 28.1 per cent increase in visitors coming from the US market in 2022.

Tourism numbers in detail

At the end of the year, 14.6 million American tourists visited the region, 3.2 million more than 11.4 million in 2021. Arrivals from the European market increased by 81 per cent in 2022 when compared to 2021.

The 5.2 million tourists from this market were almost double the 2.8 million in 2021. This represented 18.3 per cent of all arrivals in 2022, Due to travel restrictions in early 2022, the Canadian market has recovered more slowly at 60 per cent, while the lack of availability of intra-regional airlift has negatively impacted regional connectivity.

“Nearly 90 per cent of the region’s travel demand for 2019 has already been recovered,” Walters said explaining that destinations such as Curaçao, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Sint Maarten, Turks and Caicos, and the US Virgin Islands are already surpassing their pre-pandemic levels.

Caribbean destinations can expect this recovery to continue into 2023, albeit at a slower rate, Walters explained, predicting that growth will be uneven among the destinations, with additional countries and territories exceeding their 2019 levels.

The average daily rate at hotels increased by 21.7 per cent to US$290.60 in 2022. The revenue per available room surged by 66.4 per cent to $176.46, and the number of available rooms (up 4.4 per cent), as well as room income (up 73.6 per cent), increased.

Aviation challenges

After two challenging years for the aviation industry, global air passenger traffic recovered significantly in 2022. It is estimated that visitors to the Caribbean region spent between US$36.5 and $37.5 billion in 2022, an increase of 70 to 75 per cent compared to 2021.

It is expected that overall arrivals to the region will increase by between 10 and 15 per cent when compared to 2022 with 31.2 to 32.6 million tourists visiting the region this year. The cruise industry is also anticipated to continue recovering and expanding to meet increasing demand, with 32 to 33 million cruise passenger visits expected – a five to ten per cent increase over the pre-COVID baseline figure.

Kenneth Bryan, chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s Council of Ministers and Commissioners of Tourism, summarised that in the face of the devastating blows delivered by the pandemic, “as a region, we have responded with hope, strength and the determination to prevail.”

Bryan, who also serves as the Caymanian Tourism and Transport Minister, reiterated that great strides have been made in Caribbean tourism, a clear indication that the sector is bouncing back, and hopes are high that the robust pace of recovery will continue into 2023 and beyond.

“So although we have not yet surpassed 2019’s numbers across the board in every jurisdiction, the needle is certainly moving in the right direction,” he commented.

The chairman envisioned 2023 as a period of growth and development for the CTO, and he and his team were laser-focused on growing the membership, including countries, territories as well as allied partners.

“It is also my intention to strengthen the relationships with other organisations, such as the United Nations World Travel Organization, the World Travel and Tourism Council, and even the Central American Tourism Promotion Agency (CATA), to foster greater collaboration,” said Bryan.

Consideration is being given to the restructuring of the organisation and reforming its strategic vision and direction for the next five years, which includes the appointment of a new secretary-general, Bryan confirmed.

Bryan announced the return of CTO’s Caribbean Week in New York, to be held from June 5 to 8 this year; disclosing that his team was committed to addressing the nagging issue of air connectivity, which has been exacerbated by the re-evaluation of airline business structures and the global pilot shortage.

“It would be illogical for me to promise a solution to this issue during my tenure as chairman. But what I can and will commit to is getting the players around the table to forensically examine what we need to do as a unified region to improve this scenario and start the ball rolling towards the solution,” Bryan mused.