Tourism ministers from eight different Caribbean countries had a chance to sell their destinations at the American Society of Travel Advisors’ (ASTA)Caribbean Showcase, held this year in Turks and Caicos, where the discussion focused frequently on topics such as airlift from North America, new resort products across the region and sustainability.
“The two top outbound regions for air travel in the world for U.S. travelers are Europe and the Caribbean,” said Zane Kerby, ASTA’s president and CEO, who presented recent U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) aviation data during his introductory comments at the showcase, held Aug. 28-30.
More than 8 million Americans flew to the Caribbean in 2022, an annual total that was still down nearly 19% from pre-pandemic highs in 2019, according to the DOC figures Kerby provided.
“But the Caribbean continues to climb and is the second-most important outbound market for the U.S.,” Kerby said, noting that some nations in the region are recovering faster than others. “The story in the Caribbean right now is that Jamaica has already passed pre-pandemic levels of tourism from the United States, but other islands are coming on fast.”
ASTA president and CEO Zane Kerby told showcase attendees the Caribbean is the second most important outbound market for U.S. travelers – behind only Europe.
Credit: 2023 Shane NelsonMore Airlift Is Coming Across the Caribbean
Dr. Ernest Hilaire, the minister of tourism for St. Lucia, told the 400 travel pros gathered for the showcase at Beaches Resort Turks & Caicos that his nation has seen its total tourism business recover to about 90% of where it was in 2019.
“And our arrivals from the United States, due largely to your hard work, have shown a 5% increase last year over 2019, and already a 2% increase this year on 2022 figures,” Hilaire continued. “So, you have been doing a fantastic job for us.”
Hilaire did note, however, that his nation encountered some air seat challenges this summer.
“Everyone keeps saying to me, ‘Minister, we cannot get a seat to St. Lucia,’” he explained. “A lot of the airlines shifted their focus to Europe and the Far East, and that affected us with availability of flights and a decline in seats. … But from October, we’re expecting a return — and in some cases, increases — in the number of flights that we’ll have, especially out of North America from carriers such as JetBlue, Delta and American. So, we’re expecting a very strong winter season.”
Ruisandro Cijntje, the minister of tourism for Curacao, said visitor arrivals from North America to his country are already up 33% year-over-year thus far in 2023, and available seats on nonstop flights from key U.S. source markets to Curacao should also increase in the months ahead.
“American Airlines has expanded its service by launching daily nonstop flights from Charlotte, [North Carolina], beginning December of this year,” Cijntje said. “Delta Airlines is introducing nonstop service from Atlanta, starting also in December this year, and JetBlue has increased its service out of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport from three to five weekly flights. United is also planning to expand its seasonal Newark, N.J., nonstop flights to year-round service in 2024.”
The ministers of tourism from Grenada, Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas and Jamaica all shared details about new flights and increased frequency by carriers operating nonstops from North America to their nations.
“I’m proud and happy to report that we will, from this coming winter season, have a third additional American Airlines flight out of Miami International Airport,” added Ian Gooding-Edghill, the minister of tourism for Barbados. “And United will commence earlier services for the forthcoming winter season out of Washington Dulles and Newark. We are absolutely thrilled and delighted that these carriers will continue to assist us.”
Josephine Connolly, the minister of tourism for Turks & Caicos, said 80% of her nation’s GDP is derived from tourism.
Credit: 2023 American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA)A Bevvy of New Hotels and Resorts
Gebhard Rainer, group CEO for Sandals Resorts International, provided showcase attendees with an update about some of his company’s new Caribbean resort projects currently under construction, including a new Beaches property in St. Vincent and the Grenadines that he said is tentatively slated to open in the middle of 2024.
“We purchased a failed project in St. Vincent during the pandemic,” he said. “And we are now developing a resort on 50 acres — very spread out, low density. It’s one of the most beautiful bays with a river coming down. … It’s just very romantic and very intimate, and you will be able to experience that, hopefully, as of the second quarter of next year.”
Rainer also mentioned that the Beaches Runaway Bay development in Jamaica, located between Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, is coming soon. He didn’t give a precise opening date for that project, but he did mention there are three additional Beaches resort developments in the works now — although he declined to mention where they will be located. Rainer did indicate, however, that his company is definitely considering expansion to new markets.
“Dominican Republic, Mexico — those are the two largest tourism countries in this hemisphere, and we are actively looking at those countries and evaluating them at the moment,” he said. “We don’t have anything concrete there yet, but we are definitely looking further than just the Caribbean."
Barbados minister of tourism Gooding-Edghill, meanwhile, announced that the 422-room Sam Lord’s Castle Barbados, a Wyndham Grand Resort, is set to open later this year, and said the first Pendry property outside the continental U.S. is now in development on the island’s north shore. The Pendry Barbados will feature 74 oceanfront guestrooms and is slated to open in 2026, according to a Pendry Hotels statement.
Charles Henry Fernandez, the minister of tourism for Antigua and Barbuda, added that work is scheduled to begin soon on a very high-profile resort in his country.
“The Nobu Hotel in Barbuda is due to start [construction] in the first quarter of 2024,” Fernandez said. “That is about a $500 million U.S. investment. The restaurant is already completed in Barbuda, and it’s the only Nobu restaurant in the Caribbean.”
Henry Charles Fernandez, the minister of tourism for Antigua & Barbuda, said his government hopes to eliminate all CO2 production on the island of Barbuda by 2025.
Credit: 2023 American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA)Curacao minister of tourism Cijntje noted that last summer’s opening of the Sandals Royal Curacao — which will host the 2024 ASTA Caribbean Showcase — has been transformative for his nation’s growing tourism industry. He was quick to add that The Rif at Mangrove Beach Corendon Curacao All-Inclusive, Curio by Hilton is slated to begin welcoming guests in December, and a new Autograph by Marriott property is scheduled to open on the island next year.
“There will be about 2,000 more rooms we are getting in one to two years,” Cijntje explained. “So, the industry is growing very fast.”
Sustainability and Destination Management Remain Critical
Along with every one of her Caribbean governmental colleagues, Turks and Caicos minister of tourism Josephine Connolly did her best to inform the travel advisors in attendance about just how important vacationers are to her nation’s economy.
“Tourism is everything to us,” Connolly said. “Eighty percent of our GDP is derived from tourism.”
Tourism is everything to us. Eighty percent of our GDP is derived from tourism.
The Turks and Caicos tourism chief also discussed her government’s recent decision to embark on a new public-private partnership, empowering a destination management organization to head up the nation’s tourism marketing and promotion efforts under the new tagline: “Experience Turks & Caicos.”
“What you are seeing now is that only Providenciales is being promoted,” Connolly said, referring to her nation’s most-populated island. “You have to remember that Turks and Caicos is made up of many islands, and every island is unique; it has something for everybody. … We have to promote all our islands.”
Connolly also indicated that while her government would like to spread tourism revenue more evenly throughout the country, the destination wants to be careful about how it expands the industry’s reach.
“We don’t want mass tourism,” she said. “We are a high-end destination, and that’s the way we want to keep it.”
Managing tourism sustainably was a noteworthy element in the presentation made by Antigua and Barbuda minister of tourism Fernandez, who reminded attendees his nation was the first in the world to completely ban single-use plastic and Styrofoam.
Fernandez also said his government is working now to make the island of Barbuda entirely fossil-fuel free by 2025. The hope is that same approach, aimed at entirely eliminating CO2 emissions, can be extended to the much more populated island of Antigua by 2035, Fernandez added.
We are on the frontline of global warming. We are the frontline of ocean acidification, the frontline of ocean warming.
“We are on the frontline of global warming,” he explained. “We are the frontline of ocean acidification, the frontline of ocean warming. If we lose our reefs, we lose our beaches, we lose our fish, we lose our coastline. All our hotel properties fall into the sea. So, it is very important for us not to just sustain it, but my aim is to allow for us to leave it better than we met it.”
Fernandez added that the question of just how much tourism is too much is a destination management concern his nation is already considering seriously.
“We are cognizant of the fact that there is going to come a time when you say, ‘This is the limit as to the number of passengers we can afford to take on without a declining effect on our industry and our natural habitats,’” he said. “We have to protect it, otherwise, we reach the level of diminishing returns.”
