The Caribbean recorded a rise in visitor arrivals during the first half of this year, keeping pace with the world average.
The region saw a 4.3 percent increase during the first six months of the 2014, which is in line with the world average of 4.7 percent, Winfield Griffith, the director of research and information technology at the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), announced recently on the CTO’s television program, Destination Caribbean.
Griffith revealed that just under 14 million long-stay tourists visited the Caribbean between January and June, with nearly half this number (6.87 million) coming from the United States compared to 6.61 million during the same period in 2013. This represents a 3.9 percent rise in arrivals from the U.S. market.
“There is enough evidence to suggest that there is growing economic confidence in the region’s biggest neighbor and this is releasing much pent-up travel demand caused by a long recessionary period," Griffith said on the program.
The CTO research head stated that just 21 countries in the region were able to breakdown their tourist arrivals by destination in time for the report. From the most recent figures it was clear that more Europeans and Canadians are gravitating to the region showing increases of six percent and 4.3 percent, respectively.
For the winter period represented by the first four months of the year, at least five countries reported double-digit growth. These destinations continue to power through the current summer showing signs of doing exceptionally well this year.
Griffith also announced that the cruise sector enjoyed an eight percent increase in passenger arrivals to reach a total of 13.1 million after the first two quarters of 2014.
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