Analysis: Caribbean arrivals surge past pre-Covid levels

Tourism to the Caribbean almost returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2022 and surpassed them in 2023, at the same time as cruise arrivals set new records.

Travel to many islands never halted during the pandemic. Covid restrictions introduced from March 2020 meant much of the winter 2019-20 season was unaffected and the US, the Caribbean’s biggest source market, lifted its Covid travel ban in late 2021.

By 2022, the region was almost back to 2019 visitor levels with 21.2 million arrivals, against 23.8 million three years prior, rising to 24.3 million in 2023 and 25.5 million last year, according to Caribbean Tourism Organisation figures which include the US island of Puerto Rico.

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The numbers are even more remarkable given a collapse in arrivals to Cuba, which recorded 2.2 million visitors last year, less than half the 4.7 million it drew in 2018. The island saw a 73% drop in Spanish visitors and 83% fall in Italian visitors amid reported shortages of water and essential supplies at hotels.

But key to the decline were renewed US travel restrictions from 2019 followed by Washington’s designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism in 2021, excluding visitors to the island from entering the US on an Esta.

On top of record overnight visitors to the Caribbean, cruise association Clia reported a record 15 million cruise passengers in the region in 2024, up from 12 million in 2019.

Cruise passenger visits per island rose to 32.8 million last year, up from 28 million in 2019 – with the Bahamas almost wholly accounting for the increase by drawing more than nine million cruise passengers in 2024, up from 5.4 million in 2019. Most were from the US, of course, as were 42% of all overnight arrivals, with Europe accounting for 12% of arrivals.

Major cruise operators are also developing a growing number of private islands. A report commissioned by the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association concluded cruise tourism generated $4.27 billion in direct spending in the Caribbean in 2023-24, with the top-three earners the Bahamas raising $655 million, Cozumel $483 million and the US Virgin Islands $258 million.

Spending on excursions and food and drinks contributed $3 billion, or about $17 per passenger, and spending on port fees, services and other goods and services rose to $968 million or an average $29 million per destination, raising an additional $160 million in the Bahamas and $50 million in Jamaica. Whether these sums wholly compensate for the impact of 32.8 million cruise visitors a year is open to debate.

Naturally, the larger islands dominate the overnight visitor numbers. The Dominican Republic, most popular in Spanish-speaking markets, saw more than 8.5 million arrivals in 2024, while UK favourite Jamaica hosted 2.9 million and the 700 islands of the Bahamas drew 1.9 million.

As well as Jamaica and the Bahamas, other destinations with direct British Airways or Virgin Atlantic flights include Barbados (704,000), Saint Lucia (436,000), Antigua (331,000), Grenada (195,000) and St Kitts (21,000).