A new analysis supports the supposition that public concern surrounding several recent, highly-publicized, sudden and unexplained deaths of tourists staying at resorts in the Dominican Republic is affecting travelers' plans for vacationing in the Caribbean.
Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) has just released its survey findings for global airline ticketing trends to Mexico and the Caribbean for the first half of 2019.
Its report is based on the examination of 35 million roundtrip airline tickets (all classes) purchased globally from January 1 through June 23, 2019, for travel to Mexico and the Caribbean.
In the U.S. alone, the number of airline tickets to the Dominican Republic (DR) purchased between January 1 and June 23, 2019, had decreased by ten percent, while refunds issued for passenger tickets to the DR increased 127 percent in comparison to the same period in 2018.
Figures for June 2019 departures to the DR alone saw refunds increased by 77 percent, as compared to June 2018.
Air travel ticket purchases for travel to the Dominican Republic made outside the U.S. between June 1 and June 23, 2019, decreased by 28 percent, with refunds increasing eight percent when compared to the same period last year.
It seems that travelers' newfound reluctance to go to the Dominican Republic is bolstering ticket purchases for travel to other areas of the Caribbean and Mexico.
U.S.-based ticket purchases for air travel to the Caribbean (excluding the Dominican Republic) and Mexico made from June 1 through June 23, 2019, increased three percent, as compared to the same period in 2018.
ARC reported its findings on airline ticket purchases for destinations showing the most significant increases as:
- Saint Martin - up 158 percent
- Saint Barthélemy - up 117 percent
- Saint Vincent - up 70 percent
- Saint Lucia - up 33 percent
- Bahamas - up 32 percent
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