by Brian Major
Last updated: 11:40 AM ET, Tue April 29, 2025
Caribbean
destinations’ first-quarter visitor arrivals growth will be “more moderate”
than earlier forecasts due to “prevailing economic uncertainties” and booking slowdowns
in major source markets over the first quarter of 2025, Caribbean Tourism
Organization (CTO) officials said Tuesday.
The region’s overnight,
land-based visitor arrivals will increase by two to five percent, with Caribbean
destinations hosting 35 million travelers in 2025, said Aliyyah Shakeer, CTO’s director
of research. Additionally, cruise ship visitor arrivals are expected to grow
this year by five to seven percent, totaling 36 million visitors.
“Despite
geopolitical uncertainty and global economic challenges, our sector has shown
remarkable resilience,” said Dona Regis-Prosper, CTO’s secretary-general.
CTO- tracked destinations
achieved a collective 6.1 percent year-over-year visitor arrivals increase in
2024, hosting 34.2 million international travelers across the region, organization
officials said.
“To maintain
this momentum, we must double down on strategic investments, innovative
partnerships, and sustainable practices that protect our people, our culture
and our environment,” Regis-Prosper added in a statement.
CTO’s
“Caribbean Tourism Performance Review 2024” study also reports the Caribbean’s
2024 visitor total represents a 6.9 percent increase over pre-pandemic 2019,
the second consecutive year the region has outperformed that benchmark.
The United
States remained the Caribbean’s top visitor source market in 2024, with
approximately 16.8 million arrivals, a 3.5 percent increase from 2023 and a 7.9
increase over 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
Caribbean nations hosted 3.3 million Canadian travelers last
year, a four percent year-over-year increase compared with 2023, although slightly
below 2019 levels.
Driven by
expanded air connectivity across the region, intra-Caribbean travel also experienced
growth in 2024. Caribbean residents made an estimated 1.6 million trips within
the region, a 5.1 percent year-over-year increase. Still, the figure represents
only 79.2 percent of pre-pandemic traffic recorded in 2019.
The Dominican
Republic remained the Caribbean’s most-visited destination in 2024, hosting 8.5
million travelers. Jamaica followed with 2.9 million visitors, while Cuba (2.2
million), The Bahamas (1.9 million), Aruba (1.4 million) and Puerto Rico (1
million) rounded out the Caribbean’s top-drawing nations. The six destinations represented
56 percent of all visitor arrivals to the region in 2024.
Conversely,
tiny Montserrat achieved the Caribbean’s highest year-over-year growth in
tourist arrivals in 2024, with a 29.4 percent increase. Next in year-over-year
growth was St. Vincent & the Grenadines (a 27.2 percent increase), Belize
(22.8 percent) and Curaçao (20.3 percent).
Curaçao reported
the best performance in terms of growth compared with 2019 pre-pandemic levels,
reporting a 51.1 percent visitor increase. St. Maarten (48 percent) and the
U.S. Virgin Islands (41.8 percent) were next in the category.
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