CTO predicts rise in visitor arrivals in 2012

The Caribbean recorded a rise in tourist arrivals in 2011 when compared to 2010, with further growth forecast this year.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), the authority on Caribbean tourism arrival statistics and visitor spend, has announced that 23.8 million stay over visitors came to the region in 2011, an increase of 3.3 per cent over 2010.

Cruise passenger arrivals, however, were flat, rising marginally by 0.3 per cent to 20.6 million.

“The Caribbean tourism industry is holding its own, remaining afloat and resilient amidst turbulence in the marketplace. Tourist arrivals to the Caribbean region remained buoyant in 2011, continuing the recovery process which began in 2010,” Sean Smith, the CTO’s statistical specialist, announced at the regional development agency’s State of the Industry news conference at its headquarters in Barbados.

The rise in arrivals came on the back of a strong performance during the winter months, although there was less than anticipated growth during summer.

“Tourist arrivals during the winter months (January to April) were up 4.4 per cent over the previous winter, which had grown by 3.9 per cent over 2009. The summer period ending December recorded a lower than expected increase of three per cent,” Smith revealed.

High unemployment in the major source markets, pressure on the monetary and fisca l systems, as well as high oil prices continued to be of concern to the region, the CTO official said. “In light of these realities, arrivals to the Caribbean are not expected to exceed a three per cent increase in 2012 and visitor expenditure is also not expected to grow m eaningfully during this year,” Smith said. Cruise arrivals, he added, are likely to rise by two to three percent in 2012

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

3 Comments

  1. EMILE Zpatos
    March 1, 2012

    THERE IS A LOT OF TALK ABOUT CANIVAL BUT NO STATS.
    WE EVEN HAVE A POLL ON CHANGING THE DATE :BUT DNO YOU NEED TO GIVE US INFORMATION ON THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO VISITED DA FOR CANIVAL .ALSO HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO THE YEAR BEFORE.THANKS .

  2. Nathaniel Peltier
    February 29, 2012

    Caribbean region. Say which countries exacly on 3 countries in the Caribbean has contributed to this growth and Dominica was not one of them.

    • EMILE Zpatos
      March 1, 2012

      HEY DNO WHAT ABOUT THE NUMBERS FOR DOMINICA.SOME OF US ARE INTERESTED IN NUMBERS OF VITORS.BY LAND AND BY SEA .WE ALSO WANT HOTEL OCCUPANCY

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available