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Omar Perez
In a press release earlier this month, the Caribbean Tourism Organization announced that He expressed a lot of optimism towards the overall and profitable tourism of the islands in 2022 and hoped for a more fruitful 2023.
The largest year-over-year tourist increase (from 2021 to 2022) came from the US, which was 28 percent last year, with 14.6 million visiting the islands, up 3.2 million from 11.4 million in 2021. Those from the US are counted. For 51.5% of all 2021 markets. The CTO estimates that international visitors to the Caribbean will spend between $36.5 billion and $37.5 billion in 2022, an increase of 70 to 75 percent over 2021.
Six Caribbean destinations (US Virgin Islands, St. Martin, Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico and Curacao) have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, CTO Acting Secretary Neil Walters said, citing STR data. With the exception of Curaçao, their proximity to the US and air connectivity played a role in the increase, Walters said.
CTO Chairman Kenneth Bryan, Minister of Tourism and Transport of the Cayman Islands, said the main objectives of the CTO this year are to increase its membership with countries, territories and partners, such as the United Nations World Travel Organization, the World Travel and Tourism Council and the Central American Tourism Promotion Agency to foster greater cooperation. .
At the conference, CTO announced the return of the Caribbean Week trade show in New York from June 5 to 8. The conference has been canceled in 2021.
Obstacles remain
Despite the optimism, issues remain. The island’s air connection has been a problem in the region for years. Brian said that despite the new roads that have been established recently, 35% of the roads are not restored. Among the issues are pilot shortages, rising fuel costs, airport tax structures and airlines putting profitability ahead of connectivity.
“It is unreasonable for me to promise to address this issue during my tenure as chairman,” Bryan said. But what I can and will do is get the players around the table to look at what we need to do as a unified region to improve this situation and get the ball rolling on the solution.
And this year, as some economists predict, there is economic risk. For now, there are no CTO analyzes of how that might affect the Caribbean, but Walters said any future research should look at individual destinations, not regions, because each island’s primary visitor markets may differ from one another. Inflation is affected differently.
According to STR, hotels’ ADR increased by 21.7%, to $290.60, in 2022, RevPAR increased by 66.4%, to $176.46, and the number of available rooms (4.4%) as well as room revenue (73.6%). as well as. Top RevPAR performers include the Bahamas (up 53.7% from 2019), St. Lucia (up 46.6%) and St. Barts (up 42.7%). St. Barts had the highest ADR at $2,299.23, a 49.4% increase over 2019, and St. Lucia saw a 54% increase from pre-pandemic numbers.
Walters added that growth will be uneven between destinations, predicting a slower recovery in 2023.
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