Cuba Led Caribbean Tourism Growth in 2015, CTO Reports

The Caribbean islands drew 28.7 million stopover arrivals in 2015, a 7 percent increase from the year before, and not unexpectedly, Cuba led the way with 17.4 percent growth, according to Caribbean Tourism Organization statistics.

The U.S. has been gradually loosening Cuba travel restrictions over the past year, making it easier for operators to offer people-to-people itineraries (educational/cultural trips during which travelers meet Cubans). The result: Cuba drew more than 3.5 million visitors in 2015. Of those, 1.3 million were from “other” outbound markets (a category that includes the U.S.), a 20 percent increase.

A total of 1.3 million were from Canada (a 10.5 percent increase), and nearly 900,000 were from Europe (a 23.1 percent spike). Travelers originating from Europe and Canada are permitted to take resort vacations in Cuba, but U.S. travelers cannot with the travel embargo still in place.

However, the U.S. is right now Cuba’s fourth largest outbound market, trailing behind Canada, Spain and Mexico. Tourist arrivals to the island nation in January soared a whopping 14.7 percent as compared to the same month in 2015.

Other Caribbean destinations achieving double-digit growth in 2015 were Aruba (15 percent), Barbados (15 percent) and Haiti (10.9 percent). The Dominican Republic, the Caribbean nation that attracts the most visitors, reached 5.6 million, an 8.9 percent increase.

The Caribbean’s third and fourth most visited destinations, Jamaica and the Bahamas, lagged behind the pace set by the region as a whole. Jamaica’s visitor total rose just 2.1 percent, and the Bahamas’ grew 2.7 percent.

Source: Travel Weekly