Caribbean tourism outpaces other territories post-pandemic Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

Tourism in the Caribbean has recovered faster than any other destination in the world and has actually sprung into growth mode, experts say.

President of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourist Association (CHTA), Nicola Madden-Greig gave an update on the region’s performance at the latest Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) quarterly report on Business and Consumer Confidence held last month.

“The Caribbean has recovered faster than any other destination in the world. For Q3, we were up three per cent over the 2019 numbers for the same period – and 2019 was what we called a record year in tourism,” Greig told the meeting.

The third quarter under review is from July to September.

While total international inbound for Q3 was still down 39 per cent with the Americas down 24 per cent; the United States (US) down 31 per cent; the Middle East and Africa down 19 per cent and Asia Pacific down 72 per cent – the Caribbean was up 3 per cent,” Madden-Greig stressed.

The projections for the last quarter of 2022 are also looking quite good, she said.

“For Q4 projections on the books, we are pacing quite well. It is looking like we will be up 15 per cent in the Caribbean over 2019. So, we have shifted from recovery into growth and that’s really quite significant,” Madden-Greig, who is also a director at the JCC, said.

Some have however questioned whether the region can sustain the current rate of growth, she said.

“The answer we will give is definitely yes,” she said, noting the Caribbean is well-paced to continue on the path of growth and outpace other regions.

“A lot of this growth is being driven by the US market, yes. But we still have Canada, the UK [and] Latin America – which has not fully recovered,” she said.

She continued: “We anticipate that as a region, both the Caribbean and Jamaica, will be able to retain the business that we have gotten out of the US market.”

The addition of new airlift options has supported international arrivals but regional travel is still lagging, she said.

“We do have adequate airlift throughout the region coming out of the main markets but the Caribbean region in and of itself, in terms of inter-regional travel is lagging behind our international arrivals,” she said.

There is, however, “a lot of push now to try and drive for regional airlift,” she said.

The meetings, conventions and business travel segment is also expected to bring a boost for the first quarter of 2023 although that segment currently lags behind leisure arrival, she said.

“We are seeing also that there is potential for growth… we anticipate in Q1 and going forward in all of 2023, we will see a significant uptick in that segment and that will also drive the growth that we are anticipating in the Caribbean,” the CHTA president said.

In addition, while the cruise segment has not fully recovered, the industry will start to see “some uptick.”

“There are still some challenges, there have been some consolidations in terms of the number of calls but we are anticipating that generally, the number of actual passengers will remain the same even though the number of ship calls may be reduced,” Madden-Greig said.

She said some cruise lines have retired some vessels and are working with larger ships.

“So instead of maybe a call with 1500 or 2000, you will [now] have larger calls,” she reasoned.

It is hoped that these larger calls will bring a lift to other niches such as transportation, craft vendors and other tourism-dependent small and medium-sized entities.

The shared economy or accommodations segment is also seeing growth.

“We are seeing that villas, apartments and those segments in terms of the accommodations sector are continuing to grow as well,” she said adding that all in all tourism in the Caribbean and Jamaica, has rebounded quite significantly.

NewsAmericasNow.com