Woeful Winter Weather Driving Caribbean Tourist Arrival Growth

North America’s withering winter weather is driving increased tourist arrivals in several Caribbean destinations. The Antigua Hotels & Tourist Association (AHTA) is reporting its best January bookings in five years, with occupancy rates at 72.8 percent, up 5.4 percent compared with January of 2013. The January 2014 capacity is the highest for Antigua and Barbuda since the dual-island country reported 74 percent capacity in 2008.

“Our source markets are slowly getting back to levels of economic activity that allow people to have certain disposable income and think about long-haul holidays,” said Neil Forrester, AHTA’s general manager in an Antigua Observer interview.

Added John Maginley, the country’s tourism minister, “The last time we were at these levels of arrivals was before the global economic crisis."

Meanwhile January 2014 visitor arrivals in the Dominican Republic, already the largest-drawing Caribbean destination according to Caribbean Tourism Organization data, grew eight percent compared with January 2013, the country’s tourism minister, Francisco Javier Garcia said Saturday. The Dominican Republic drew more than 4.2 million tourists in 2013, more than 1.5 million more than Cuba, the next highest destination.

Garcia said the strong early results are “quite the opposite” of last year’s slow start and augur a strong year for tourism in 2014. He said arrivals have been strong leading up to January, growing seven percent in October of 2013, eight percent in November and 10 percent in December. The Dominican Republic was recently named "Top Destination of the Year, Caribbean" by Expedia.com.

Source: Travel Pulse, http://www.travelpulse.com/news/destinations/woeful-winter-weather-driving-caribbean-tourist-arrival-growth.html