Jamaica’s Tourism and Entertainment Minister Wykeham McNeill says Jamaica recorded a five per cent increase in overall visitor arrivals for the 2014/15 winter tourist season over the corresponding period last year.

There are many possible reactions to the House of Representatives passing a bill that would reverse President Obama’s loosening of Cuba travel restrictions last December, but one reaction that is highly unlikely among tour operators is surprise.

Trinidad and Tobago is seeing very strong growth in tourism so far in 2015, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization. The twin-island republic counted 155,671 stayover arrivals in the first four months of 2015, up 10.8 percent from the same period in 2014, according to the CTO data.

In the wake of last week's House of Representatives vote against relaxing long-standing restrictions on U.S. citizens' travel to Cuba, Latour has announced it will increase the number of its 2015 and 2016 licensed people-to-people tour programs to Cuba.

The Caribbean continues its rapid growth rate from 2014 when arrivals grew by 5.3 percent to 26.3 million visitors. Arrivals to the Caribbean were estimated to be 7.9 million in the first three months. This is the fifth consecutive year in which arrivals grew during a first quarter.

The U.S. Tour Operators Association launched a new promotion for travel to Peru in partnership with Travcoa, a member tour operator; PromPeru, the tourism promotion entity for Peru; and LAN, the Latin American airline.