Caribbean Records Strong Tourism Figures For 2015

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao (CMC) – Tourist arrivals to the Caribbean increased by nearly six per cent during the first six months of this year, Chairman of the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Richard Sealy said here, last week Friday.

Sealy, who is attending the CTO organized State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC 2015), told a news conference that international tourist arrivals in the Caribbean continue to be strong with 5.8 per cent increase through June, outpacing all major regions of the world.

“For the first six months the Caribbean welcomed 14.8 million, approximately 800,000 or 5.8 per cent higher than the corresponding period in 2014, well above the 4.1 per cent recorded globally. The Caribbean share of global arrivals stood at 2.8 per cent,” said Sealy, who is also the Minister of Tourism in Barbados.

He told regional and international journalists that the Dutch Caribbean recorded the fastest relative growth across the sub-regions in the first six months of 2015 with an 8.5 per cent increase in arrivals and that all destinations in this sub-region had considerable growth benefitting from increase demand from the United States and South American markets.

But the figure released here showed that of the other five sub-regions only the French West Indies recorded a slight decline.

The CTO said that the United States remains the Caribbean’s main market with 7.3 million Americans coming to the region between January and June this year, representing a 5.3 per cent increase.

Sealy said that the thawing of the relationship between Cuba and United States resulted in a greater number of Americans transiting through other countries like the Bahamas, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands in order to visit Havana.

He said that the Canadian market continues to perform well with 2.1 million visitors coming to the region during the first half of 2015, while arrivals from Europe increased by a modest 1.1 per cent, moving from 2.58 million in 2014 to 2.61 in 2015.

Sealy, who said crime against visitors to the region remains low, said that the intra-regional market recorded strong growth of 5.5 per cent, with some 400,000 visits.

The CTO chairman said that the hotel industry performed well during the first six months of the year with occupancy rates increasing slightly from 72 to 74.6 per cent.

“Both room rates and revenue increased during the period, with room revenue collected in the sector rising 9.2 per cent. The available room stock across the region also increased by 1.5 per cent. “

Sealy said that cruising the Caribbean continued to be in high demand up to the end of June and that there were an estimated 13.7 million cruise passenger visits to region in the first six months, an overall three per cent rise over the corresponding period last year.

He said the numbers suggest that the prospects for Caribbean tourism are good, “and we remain cautiously optimistic that we will maintain the pace during the second half. Overall, the CTO’s research department projects a five to six per cent growth this year”.

Sealy told reporters that he was also pleased with the way SOTIC has gone so far and that the discussions on the state of the industry have been very stimulating.