Statistics

Caribbean Tourism Shows Resilient Growth Amid Global Headwinds in 2025

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (April 2, 2026) — Caribbean tourism continued its expansion in 2025, recording a 2.5% increase in international stay-over arrivals to an estimated 35 million visits, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).

This performance — approximately 900,000 more tourists than in 2024 — reflects the region’s sustained recovery and resilience with arrivals once again surpassing pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

Despite a complex global environment marked by evolving economic conditions in key source markets, heightened geopolitical tensions and weather-related disruptions, including the passage of Hurricane Melissa, the region maintained steady tourism demand throughout much of the year.

“Caribbean tourism in 2025 demonstrated continued resilience and adaptability even as the global landscape presented a number of challenges,” said Aliyyah Shakeer, CTO’s Director of Research. “Strategic investments in tourism infrastructure, sustained marketing efforts, and incremental gains in airlift connectivity helped support growth and maintain the region’s competitiveness.”

Performance across the year was uneven but generally positive. While the first quarter recorded a slight contraction of 0.3% amid early-year uncertainty, arrivals rebounded in the second and third quarters with growth of 5% and 5.6%, respectively. The fourth quarter remained broadly stable with marginal growth of 0.2% as late-year momentum softened.

Monthly arrivals ranged between 2.1 million and 3.5 million, peaking during the traditional high-demand periods of March, July and December. Notably, all months in 2025 exceeded their corresponding 2019 levels, underscoring the strength of the region’s post-pandemic recovery.

Across destinations, performance remained mixed. Strong growth was recorded in several destinations, including Guyana, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Curaçao, reflecting ongoing product development and market diversification efforts.

At the same time, some destinations experienced contractions influenced by external economic pressures, capacity constraints and localized disruptions. Nevertheless, a majority of destinations have now surpassed their pre-pandemic benchmarks, highlighting the region’s overall recovery trajectory.

Source Markets

The United States remained the Caribbean’s largest source market, with arrivals increasing 0.5% to approximately 17 million visitors. While demand from this market remained relatively stable, performance was uneven across the year, reflecting more cautious consumer behavior and varying conditions across destinations.

Arrivals from Canada declined 5.3% to an estimated 3.1 million visitors, remaining below pre-pandemic levels, as higher travel costs and increased competition from alternative destinations influenced travel patterns.

Similarly, arrivals from Europe decreased 3.3% to approximately 5.1 million visitors with recovery continuing at a slower pace compared with other markets.

In contrast, South America emerged as the strongest-performing source market with arrivals increasing 23.7% to 2.4 million visits. This growth was supported by improved air connectivity, targeted marketing initiatives and rising outbound demand, contributing to a gradual diversification of the region’s source markets.

Intra-regional travel also showed modest improvement, increasing 5.1%, although ongoing challenges related to air connectivity and travel costs continued to constrain growth.

Caribbean Hotel Performance

The Caribbean hotel sector posted mixed results in 2025. According to CoStar, average room occupancy declined slightly to 63.7% from 65% in 2024. However, the Average Daily Rate (ADR) rose 2.1% to US$350.37 while Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) increased modestly by 0.8% to $223.12.

Performance varied across destinations with several markets recording growth across key indicators and others experiencing declines, reflecting uneven demand patterns and localized market conditions.

Cruise Tourism Performance

The cruise sector continued its strong expansion in 2025 with total cruise visits increasing 5.2% to an estimated 35.5 million visits. This represents a significant 16.7% increase over pre-pandemic 2019 levels, confirming the sector’s full recovery and continued growth trajectory.

Growth in cruise activity was evident throughout the year with particularly strong performance in the fourth quarter driven by increased capacity and strong seasonal demand. The Bahamas remained the leading cruise destination, receiving a record 10.7 million visits, followed by several high-performing destinations across the region.

The continued expansion of cruise itineraries, fleet capacity and port infrastructure has supported sustained growth in this segment, reinforcing its importance to the region’s overall tourism performance.

Outlook

Looking ahead, the outlook for Caribbean tourism remains cautiously optimistic. The sector is expected to transition into a phase of more moderate, stable growth as global travel patterns normalize.

“While growth is expected to continue, the pace of expansion may ease as the industry navigates a shifting global environment,” noted Shakeer. “Maintaining a steady focus on strengthening air connectivity, particularly intra-regional connectivity; enhancing product offerings; and diversifying source markets will be important to supporting sustained growth and resilience over the longer term.”

Notwithstanding current travel and tourism challenges, CTO projects that stay-over arrivals will increase between 3% and 4% in 2026, supported by steady demand from North America and continued expansion in select emerging markets. Cruise tourism is also expected to grow further with projected increases between 5% and 7%.

However, ongoing global uncertainties — including economic conditions, travel costs and external geopolitical developments — may continue to influence travel demand and performance across destinations.

“Caribbean tourism continues to demonstrate its resilience in the face of evolving global conditions, but this is no time for complacency. We must remain vigilant and proactive, working together as a united region to navigate uncertainty and sustain our momentum,” said Dona Regis-Prosper, CTO Secretary-General & CEO. “By strengthening collaboration, enhancing air connectivity and advancing responsible tourism practices, we can ensure long-term growth that benefits our people and economies.”

Regis-Prosper asserted the Caribbean remains well-positioned as a highly desirable destination, supported by its diverse tourism offerings, strong brand appeal and continued commitment to sustainable and regenerative tourism development.

Caribbean Tourism Experiences Strong Growth in 2023, Recovery to Continue into 2024

Buy the full December 2023 Quarterly Review

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (March 15, 2024) – Continuing its positive recovery trend, Caribbean tourism grew in 2023 with an estimated 14.3% increase in international stay-over arrivals to the region, the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) has reported.

Delivering the “Caribbean Tourism Performance Review 2023” in Bridgetown today, Dona Regis-Prosper, Secretary-General of the CTO, shared that last year’s growth was in line with CTO’s forecast for the year, and attributed the outcome to sustained demand for outbound travel from the United States – the Caribbean’s main source market, enhanced tourism-related infrastructure within the destinations, the fulfillment of strategic marketing initiatives, and augmented airlift capacity between the region and its source markets, albeit unevenly distributed among the destinations.

The recovery of global tourism has been resilient, despite variability in the regional performances, according to Regis-Prosper, with the Caribbean surpassing pre-pandemic arrivals by a modest 0.8%, outperforming most of the main global regions in terms of recovery.

“Based on preliminary data provided so far by the destinations in the Caribbean, tourist visits were approximately 32.2 million – about four million more than in 2022,” stated Regis-Prosper, who noted that the data showed that each month’s arrivals exceeded those of 2022 thus establishing a continuous growth trend over the past 33 months as tourism steadily rebounded toward pre-pandemic levels.

Arrival levels amongst Caribbean destinations either significantly recovered or moderately exceeded the benchmark numbers of 2019, with 11 destinations, Anguilla, Aruba, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Turks & Caicos Islands, and U.S. Virgin Islands performing better than in 2019. The majority of those recovered greater than 50% of their 2019 arrivals. In addition, multiple destinations registered new record levels for tourist arrivals in a single year.

United States and Canada Markets

For the Caribbean, only the U.S. market has fully recovered, while the recovery rates of arrivals from Europe and Canada reached 88.2% and 88.1%, respectively. An estimated 16.3 million stay-over arrivals to the region came from the United States, representing an annual growth rate of 12.7%. The performance here established a new record level of arrivals from this market and surpassed the pre-pandemic arrivals by 4.2%. The performance of the Canadian market resulted in an estimated three million Canadian tourist visits by the end of the year, an increase of 46.1% compared to 2022. Increased air service from major Canadian cities to Caribbean destinations played a pivotal role in driving up visitor numbers.

Europe, Caribbean and South America Markets

Regis-Prosper noted that arrivals from Europe to the Caribbean region were stagnant in 2023. A total of approximately 5.2 million trips originated from the market. In 2023, travel among Caribbean residents to destinations within the region increased by approximately 3.6%, a total of 1.6 million trips, which was 0.3 million more compared to 2022. This also indicated a recovery of 62.5% from pre-pandemic levels. “Despite this positive outcome, intra-regional travel remained expensive due to fragmented air service and reduced air capacity,” said Regis-Prosper. By the end of the year, trips from South America to the region surged by an estimated 14%, totaling 1.7 million trips.

Caribbean Hotel Performance

The Caribbean hotel sector experienced a remarkable turnaround in 2023, including a surge in the establishment of new hotels and resorts. According to STR, throughout the Caribbean, average room occupancy grew to 65.6% in 2023 from 61% in 2022. The average daily rate (ADR) experienced a considerable increase of 11.8% with the region’s ADR reaching US$329.37 while the revenue per available room (RevPAR) jumped 20.2% to US$215.97.

Cruise Tourism Performance

Preliminary data for 2023 showed that Caribbean destinations received an estimated 31.1 million cruise visits, reflecting an increase of 11.3 million visits or 56.8% compared to 2019. This level established a new record for the regional cruise sector, surpassing the previous record of 2019 by 2.4%. Pent-up demand and the resumption of operations drove strong bookings for Caribbean cruises, along with improvements in cruise infrastructure such as larger ships, enhanced facilities, itineraries, and shore excursions.

Projections indicate that the cruise sector will continue its upward track, with an estimated 34.2 million to 35.8 million cruise visits expected in the Caribbean in 2024. This anticipated expansion falls within the range of 10% and 15%.

Remarkable Resilience

Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s Council of Ministers and Commissioners of Tourism, Kenneth Bryan, who also serves as the Cayman Islands’ Minister of Tourism and Ports, noted the remarkable resilience of the tourism industry and its ongoing recovery and growth in 2023. However, he emphasized that the industry and the region will continue to face an array of challenges, including the high cost of travel, ongoing conflicts, heightened geopolitical tensions, and their anticipated impacts, in 2024.

“Caribbean destinations remain adaptable and responsive, and the region is still highly desired by travelers for its safety and diversity of tourism products,” stated Chairman Bryan, adding that the region will also be positively impacted by key developments in 2024, including increased air capacity throughout the year, which will facilitate greater access between the destinations and some of their legacy and emerging markets.

Chairman Bryan also pointed to “intensive strategic marketing initiatives” that are being executed to attract visitors to the region to enjoy its culture and heritage, including its carnivals and festivals.

He noted that the CTO is pleased that the ICC (International Cricket Council) Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 is being hosted in several destinations bringing not only teams but also their loyal followers to the region and further raising awareness and promoting the diverse offerings of Caribbean destinations to global audiences.

“Hence, the Caribbean’s prospects appear highly promising, with more regional destinations poised to either match or surpass the arrival figures recorded in 2019. Anticipated growth is forecast to range between five percent and 10 percent, potentially welcoming between 33.8 million and 35.4 million stay-over tourists,” concluded Chairman Bryan.