The Caribbean is a region shaped by every imaginable influence, and 2015 was a banner year; international trips to the Caribbean grew by seven percent – the second straight year tourism grew faster than the global growth rate.
The new Resonance 2016 Caribbean Tourism Quality Index – released at the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s “Caribbean Week” in New York this week – reveals that the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico produce the most quality experiences in the Caribbean overall. Saint Martin, Anguilla, and Saint Vincent and The Grenadines are shown to have the most quality experiences per 100,000 visitors.
The study measures tourism’s supply-side performance and competitiveness in 28 destinations across the Caribbean based on both absolute and indexed scales: the Absolute Ranking measures the total number of quality experiences; the Indexed Ranking evaluates performance in terms of how many quality experiences are delivered per visitor (i.e. the number of quality experiences per 100,000 visitors).
The types of experiences people enjoy most in the Caribbean are culinary, sightseeing and sports and adventure activities, with entertainment and culture coming in a distant fourth and fifth.
ABSOLUTE RANKING
In the Absolute Ranking – greatest number of quality experiences – the Dominican Republic holds top place for entertainment, lodging and connectivity, and also reports the greatest number of visitors. Destinations that attract the most visitors traditionally sit atop Resonance’s Absolute Ranking.
Puerto Rico and Cuba rank second and third: the report poses the question whether tourism can save Puerto Rico, the debt-crippled and Zika-troubled country. It also speculates on the changes Cuba will see and bring to tourism in the Caribbean. The influx of American travelers to Cuba – a 10 – 20 percent increase following Obama’s historic visit – could spur as many as 110 new commercial flights from the U.S. to Cuba per day starting late 2016, the report says.
INDEXED RANKING
When it comes to which destinations deliver the most quality experiences per visitor, Saint Martin tops the Indexed Ranking in six areas – museums, shopping, nightlife, amusements, outdoors and restaurants. Its top attraction, Orient Bay Beach, is ranked among the best sightseeing and outdoor activities experiences in the report.
Saint Vincent and The Grenadines is second in the Indexed Ranking; not co-incidentally, the southern Caribbean island saw a 5.4% increase in total stopover arrivals in 2015 as well as a 9.2% increase in arrivals from the U.S., according to the CTO.
The Resonance 2016 Caribbean Tourism Quality Index gives Caribbean tourism leaders a new lens through which to view destination strengths and weaknesses, and to plan for growth in years to come.
There is an error in this list. St Martin hardly get any tourist just like Dominica.ST MAARTEN GET THE MILLION PLUS in the first six months of every year. There is no , absolutely no natural resources on this Island and yet they are doing great so very well In Tourism.
We need to do some AGGRESSIVE MARKETING to get out from where we are.
not surprised,
I support U 100% but in other for us to get like the rest of the world we surely have to remove the LABOUR DABA, SKERRIT AND HIS CABAL from the team, U get that/
Dominica will Raise,
Need to have faith, By God grace we will prevail. nothing is impossible
and we need to Bless our country lets talk positive.
We have to come together to build our country,
Its people that build their country look around and lets copy what the other country are doing to build.
we can do it lets build Dominica.
God bless Dominica
Dominica will only rise after they remove the barrier which they placed at the entrance those DONKEY HOLES
St Martin is far more developed than DA. As a Dominican and one who have also had the opportunity to go on the cruise ship traveling to St Martin, St Thomas, St Lucia, Barbados, St Kitts, Bahamas, Turks etc I enjoyed the beach because I do enjoy being in the water. However, not all tourist like going to the beach some just rather stay on the boat and still have fun as there are pools on the ship that you can swim in all day long. Different areas of the Caribbean cater to different people. We do have places that can be used to maximize our tourism industry. However if the people in charge of tourism are not aware of how to do things we will never get to where we need to be. Dominica has to focus on what it has that might be interesting to people. That includes packages to visit waterfalls, the lakes etc. Now regarding Roseau. If the first place a tourist sees when they enter a place is Roseau and it is unkempt that leaves a bad impression on the tourist.
What I believe needs to happen is to get someone who knows about the tourism market to help DA launch a campaign that can reach people far and wide. We may not have an international airport but it can work if people focus on the betterment of the country.
On another note. Dominican’s if you bad mouth your country how do you expect a stranger to speak good about your country? Skerritt is not the only Dominican in DA. Everyone should be working to make DA better. Instead of complaining put your heads together and come up with solutions. Maybe a day of community service cleaning up Roseau would be a start. Instead of speaking negativity I pray that there be some turn around somewhere. I AM STILL PROUD TO BE A DOMINICAN AND ALWAYS WILL!!
We need casinos and whore houses these people want night life too and we don\’t offer that the city closed down at 10 in the night and on Saturday after 1pm the city is a ghost town so what do we expect that country cannot go anywhere forward but backward
ANGUILLA
St. Lucia and St. Kitts aren’t there either&as if they pushing themselves more than DA . Hmm
the record shows that he will go down and the worst ever minister of tourism the man seem lost in planet Jupiter…..
What do you expect. It’s politics we are playing what I can’t understand is the fact that the government has so many advisors paying large sums vof tax payers money and none of them are advising him correctly.my God prioritise.!!! The country is smelling. Deal with this and the displacement of people since erika,the roads,beautification of the countr and the hospital. It does not take a genius to figure this out? Where is the money going?yet we have a half dead president,whom Mary Eugina Charles tried so hard to educate but was futile in her attempts living in luxury at people expense.why?why ?when soi many befor e him lived at their homes.people are dying in hospital,tourist has no place to go if injured Roseau is smelling . When will you guys start doing right by us? when the country is wiped out by another disaster. Lord have mercy on us . We will be delivered one day .yes we will
Alas Dominica,what a blast,I can hear you crying from a distant saying
Why my servants,Why honorable ,when its me who puts food on your table
Look how you have brought me to shame ,now my friends laugh at my name,
I was once a paradise ,but you succeeded by bringing shame to my eyes ,through greed
So self centered ,thats what you are, not thinking of others not even me
now my companions have left me by far,and i’m left alone on bending knees
I stumble by the rivers and my riches are few,
I stumble by the forest,just because of you
I stumble by my natural sites and stumble a new, and at the feet of visitors ,i stumble too
Why did’nt you listen to my cry?
Why,oh why,you left me there to die?
Why did’nt you answer when i call?
your pockets you were filling,and that was all,
Now i’m left alone like in a zoo,
Why my servants? its all because of you.
Dominica is in touble, and thats my piece
Dominica will never catch up with them. We will never make this list. We always will be last in everything. Such a shame
And where does Dominica rank on that list? Do we even make the top 50? Im sure if you asked el supremo Skeritt he will say that this study is misleading and that his handout no night life lack of activity Tarzan in the jungle paradise is the best place to visit as if them tourist anxious to see his state house. Shame shame shame again. 20 years in office and we still cannot find our place in this world. Labor really is working !!!
Why every thing is Skerit, what we doing to improve ourselves ,that kind of attitude that we have will not take us anywhere.
Why every thing is Skerit, what we doing to improve ourselves ,that kind of attitude that we have will not take us anywhere.
Dominica couldn’t find a single spot on either the Absolute or Indexed ranking lists??? Is it a matter of marketing Dominica as a prime tourism destination? Or is it the fact that besides our National Trail and a few Waterfalls we really don’t have much to offer tourists??? To me enhancing the Tourism Industry includes and involves putting things in place on the ground to give Tourist a more welcoming, exciting, fun and memorable experience. The areal tram, clean beaches with beach chairs and umbrellas plus five-star service, water sports, jet skis, horse back riding, ATV trails and ATV rides to Tourist Attractions such as the Boiling Lake etc., safe, clean and professional night life and daytime entertainment. Most importantly, a clean and properly developed infrastructure to include an enhanced Roseau and Portsmouth and a well-paved road system!!!!
wonder if the Minister of Tourism has any heart?
how come under your watch you have built the “Head Stone” for the tourism sector in Dominica..
what does it take for the dominicans to see the writing on the wall for dominica…
don’t dcans ever think that when eventually the passport sales drop or is stopped due to some major issue the chaos it will create in a already dead economy…
dominica will continue to be the Poorest and Slowest island in the region…
they are too droll, sick and highly foolish to even ask for anything…
they are just not a smart island period!!
Alas poor Dominica
Does St. Martin have Emerald Pool, Trafalgar Falls, rainforest? NO, it does not.! We making so much noise about our natural beauty, which I do not deny we have. So the question is why is Dominica not even ranked on these lists? Why do these tourists not visit us like they do other Caribbean countries? Obviously we are doing things wrong because our visitor numbers are going down. When will the government wake up and face the truth??? When will we stop blaming everything and everyone else instead of ourselves???
Although I do agree with some of what you have said, I can’t agree with all. First of all, you need to understand tourist markets. I hope that you will agree with me that most tourist are inclined towards soft, white sand beaches with umbrella-beach chairs where they can sit with a pina-colada in their hands. Dominica has not been blessed with white sand beaches and offers instead a different brand of tourism called eco-tourism which although growing slowly in popularity, is at present still greatly outdone by the more traditional forms.
i agree with your comment “lawieBawie” Our nature island is nice and beautiful to us dominicans, but its a difficult sell to the tourist markets. And also except for carnival the nightlife is not up too speed as the other islands
Yes its true that Eco-tourism is a small niche market but what are we doing to grab a piece of that niche. yes we have the sites but how accessible are they? our roads are a mess. Secondly what else do we have to offer? the nature sites are all well and good for cruise tourist but what about stay overs? there is no night life. when the sun sets its bed time. look at the cruise ship birth. from the time the tourist step off the jetty they are rushed by hair braiders, taxi men and people trying to sell souvenirs. from that point the experience has already been affected in a negative manner. All of the above mentioned and a vast number of other aspects are what that’s killing our tourism industry but our government continues to turn a blind eye to the real issues and continue to spend millions of dollars on trivial things.
White sand beach does not have an impact so great. Sanorini has black sand it is a top tourist destination. The same way one can make a white sand beach appealing and relaxing can be done to black sand as well – the chairs, restaurants with exotic drinks, water sports, etc. I honestly do not think out people heading tourism understands what Dominica has to offer and therefore are unable to get the word across the globe. Also in the top countries listed every segment of the tourism industry talks to each other and coordinate so you find the port of call appealing, sites well kept and not overcrowded, a charge for every site, top customer service etc. These are the basics that keep tourism going and land you in a top spot.