Visitor arrivals to region set to exceed pre-COVID levels

Between 31.2 million and 32.6 million people are expected to visit the Caribbean this year, surpassing the number of people who arrived before COVID-19 hit, according to Acting Secretary-General of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) Neil Walters.

He reported on Tuesday that the Caribbean welcomed 28.3 million long-stay visitors in 2022, approximately 88.6 per cent of the approximately 31.9 million total visitor arrival for 2019, the year which serves as a baseline for typical tourism activity before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Walters was presenting his report on the Caribbean tourism performance and outlook during a press conference at the CTO’s office in Warrens, St Michael.

“The outlook for travel is promising despite global pressures like high inflation, the war in Ukraine, and the ensuing energy crisis, as well as the impending economic recession,” he said.

“When compared to 2022, it is expected that overall arrivals to the region will increase by between 10 per cent and 15 per cent. This means that between 31.2 million and 32.6 million tourists can be expected to visit the region this year. Thus, tourist arrivals this year might surpass pre-pandemic levels,” he reported.

In relation to cruise, Walters said this segment of the market was also expected to continue its recovery as more ships are deployed, cruise capacity increases, and demand remains high.

“All ports in the region have reopened and some have started homeporting. In the region, there should be between 32 million and 33 million cruise visits overall, which is a 5 per cent to 10 per cent increase over the pre-COVID baseline figure,” he said.

Walters told reporters that last year’s continued recovery of the tourism sector in the region with 28.3 million visitors represented an approximately 52.4 per cent increase over the previous year.

Overall visitor arrivals to the Caribbean were driven by travel from the US, with 14.6 million American tourists visiting the region. This was 3.2 million more than in 2021. The US accounted for 51.5 per cent of all arrivals in 2022.

“International travel restrictions that were further relaxed as well as strong demand in the US, the region’s top source market for inbound travel, bolstered the recovery. Strategic marketing initiatives and the restoration of some of the airlift capacity between more markets and the Caribbean also contributed to the positive results,” reported Walters.

“However, the industry’s recovery and growth were undermined throughout the year by the negative effects, including rising prices and intermittent supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic, labour shortages and disputes, global inflation, and heightened geopolitical tension.”

Visitor arrivals from Canada to the Caribbean reached 2.1 million last year, 7.2 per cent of the total arrivals to the region and only about 60 per cent of 2019 arrivals from that source market.

Arrivals from Europe increased by about 81 per cent in 2022, when compared to 2021, reaching 5.2 million – almost double the 2.8 million arrivals in 2021. Arrivals from this source market represented 18.3 per cent of the region’s total arrivals last year.

Meanwhile, intraregional travel continued to struggle but increased last year when compared to 2021. Total arrivals in the reporting countries were 900 000, up from the 400 000 visitor arrivals in 2021 but down from 1.1 million in 2019.

“Connectivity between countries was hampered by insufficient airlift and the relative gaps in arrivals between 2022 and 2019 ranged from -0.6 to -72.6 per cent. The fact that destinations for whom this market contributes significantly to annual arrivals only recovered between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of the 2019 arrivals is noteworthy,” said Walters.

He indicated that six destinations – the United States Virgin Islands, St Maarten, Turks and Caicos Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Curacao surpassed their total pre-pandemic arrival numbers while a third of the remaining 21 CTO member states had recovered at least 80 per cent of their pre-pandemic arrivals.

Noting that the Caribbean was one of the regions with the quickest recovery rates globally last year, the CTO general secretary said it accounted for 3.1 per cent of all arrivals worldwide, “down one percentage point from the historically high share of 4.1 per cent recorded in 2021”.

He reported that for last year, all significant performance indicators showed improvements for the hotel sector according to hospitality analytics firm Smith Travel Research (STR).

Walters said hotel occupancy increased to 60.7 per cent during the review period, the average daily rate increased by 21.7 per cent to $290.60, while revenue per available room surged by 66.4 per cent to $176.46.

“The number of available rooms was up by 4.4 per cent as well as room income which increased by 73.6 per cent,” he said.

Reporting on the cruise arrivals for the 2022 period, Walters said the region welcomed 19.2 million cruise visitors, five times more than those in 2021 and 63.3 per cent of the record number of 30.4 million cruise visits in 2019.

Walters indicated that most destinations stopped collecting survey data, which hampered the generation of tourist expenditure figures. However, it was estimated that visitors to the region spent between US$36.5 billion and US$37.5 billion in 2022, an increase of 70 per cent to 75 per cent when compared to 2021.

CTO Chairman Kenneth Bryan said he was pleased with the performance of the region’s tourism product, adding that “even in the face of the devastating blows delivered by the pandemic, as a region, we have responded with hope, strength and determination to prevail”.

“This is a clear indication that this sector is bouncing back and hopes are high that the robust pace of recovery will continue in 2023 and beyond. This is a position supported by the stakeholders,” he said. (MM)