Caribbean comeback: The region’s post-pandemic tourism rebound leads the world

Photo:  A beach in the Caribbean island nation of Barbados. (Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association). Retrieved from wlrn.org

Few regions saw their tourism industries suffer more during the COVID-19 pandemic than the Caribbean did. But the region is now rebounding more strongly than any other — and for some surprising reasons.

The Caribbean lost a full tenth of its collective GDP in 2020 — the worst year of the pandemic — and the big reason was that tourism, which accounts for a full 14 percent of that GDP, dropped by two-thirds.

But travel data firms like ForwardKeys now show Caribbean tourism enjoying the world’s best post-pandemic recovery. In the first two months of this year, the Caribbean’s international arrivals numbers were down only 1% compared to the same period in 2019.

By contrast, Europe’s numbers were still 25% behind — and Asia’s were 54% short.

Leading the way was the U.S. Virgin Islands, which saw a 22% arrivals increase, although the U.S. territory’s pandemic recovery benefitted from U.S.-supplied vaccines and economic relief.

“These are impressive results for our region,” said Nicola Madden-Greig, president of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association.

One key reason appears to be a jump in post-pandemic travel to the Caribbean from South America — a region that usually sends its tourists to Miami. That shift is due largely to the fact that Panama is now a more active airport connection hub for South Americans to Caribbean destinations.