Photo: maridav/123RF

By Frank Martin

TTC Service.- The Caribbean achieved a tourists arrivals increase in its destinations in 2019, although specialists described the result as “slow” with a tendency to continuous growth.

A report by the so-called “Caribbean Tourism Pulse” seminar whose promoter is the CHTA (Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association) at its annual meeting described the results of the Caribbean leisure industry last year as historic.

The arrivals of visitors for night stays, air transport and hotel performance indicators were successful.

The seminar at Baha Mar Bahamas Resort issued data on arrivals, demographics, consumption and hotel occupancy.

Analysts said after knowing those data that indicates the Caribbean destinations are prepared to achieve a growth of several years despite the concerns that go from bad weather. to global economic and political changes.

Caribbean tourists visit to other Caribbean destinations other than their own showed a significant increase.

Caribbean visitors stays in the Caribbean were of greater growth than those reported from other areas of the world, Dominic Fedee, president of the Caribbean Tourism Organization and tourism minister of Saint Lucia, told reporters.

CTO figures as of September 2019 report a 6.1 percent increase in regional arrivals, exceeding the global average of four percent.

Fedee said the Caribbean nations “probably ended 2019 with an arrival growth of five to six percent.

Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Curacao and Jamaica were some of the countries that reported strong growth in arrivals from ground visitors for night stays.

Although the data disclosed are not official yet, it showed that Caribbean destinations reached an important hotel occupancy milestone in 2019.

Caribbean revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased 2.8 percent, the average daily rate (ADR) increased 5.6 percent and room supply increased 2.8 percent in 2019, as was learned.

A similar positive situation occurred in 2014 but the hurricanes of September 2017 put an end to that bonanza that in 2019 had a recovery.

Around 49 percent of CHTA hoteliers increased hiring last year, and investments increased for the ninth consecutive year, from significant improvements and the opening of new hotels.