Caribbean tourism ‘must build resilience to market shocks’

His admissions come amid a marked slump in forward bookings for the first quarter of 2020 according to analysis by global flight data specialist ForwardKeys, which found Q1 bookings lagging 3.6% behind where they were 12 months ago.

Q1 bookings from the UK specifically are nearly 11% behind year-on-year – the most severe decline from the region’s five most important source markets.

US bookings are 7.2% behind and Argentina 5.8%, although bookings from France and Canada are both ahead of where they were in Q1 2019, up 1.9% and 8.9% respectively.

“The outlook is challenging,” said ForwardKeys, albeit coming after its latest analysis found tourism to the Caribbean grew 4.4% last year, in line with worldwide tourism growth.

This increase was driven by a 6.5% increase in bookings from the US, the Caribbean’s most important market accounting for 53% of visitors, and 12.2% increase in bookings from Canada.

The Dominican Republic continues to lead the way for Caribbean tourism numbers, claiming 29% of visitor share, followed by Jamaica (12%), Cuba (11%) and the Bahamas (7%).