Amid numerous headwinds, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) is maintaining a positive outlook for tourism prospects for the region this summer and for the remainder of the year.

Providing over 300,000 new jobs last year and leading the second-fastest recovery globally, Caribbean tourism, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) in its latest forecast, is expected to double in gross domestic product (GDP) and employment output over the next ten years, if the region is able to address its challenges.

The CHTA said that while issues such as labour shortage, increased operating cost as a result of higher fuel prices and rising inflation, air-connectivity and high cost for travel across the region continues to impact businesses, robust demand for Caribbean destinations has been leading a very positive recovery, supported by an overall increase in average daily rates (ADR). The ADR is a metric widely used in the hospitality industry to indicate the average revenue that can be earned for an occupied room on a given day.

“Summer is actually going to be nice and sunny, we are seeing robust demand for the Caribbean. We’re seeing for the June to August period that we are actually ahead of our 2019 airline arrivals in terms of what is forecast and on the books by upward of two per cent. This is significant news for us in the Caribbean. When we speak to our hotel associations and our members they are also seeing the demand and have been responding,” stated CHTA President Nicola Madden-Greig commenting on recent data findings for the industry during a virtual media briefing held yesterday.

The president underscored that with the recent removal of testing requirement by the United States — a major source market — and with hopes for others such as Canada to follow soon, travel to the Caribbean will only get better following months of pent up demand.

“We are also seeing based on some data from Forwardkeys (a travel analytic firm) that summer into fall versus the pre-pandemic is also six per cent up, and for fall based on what is on the books now— we’re now pacing ahead at about 18 per cent above 2019 as at June 7,” she said.

“We are seeing great indicators that we are going to have a very good summer, and a very good fall and with that traction, we also expect that winter 2022/23 will be strong which is all in all, good news for the Caribbean.

“Caribbean tourism is ripe to continue to grow, there is a lot of interest from an investment point of view but also for demand. People love the Caribbean as we offer the most wonderful products,” Madden-Greig added, recommending greater collaboration, public-private partnership and digital transformation going forward.

Reporting on the findings of a recent survey conducted by the CHTA across some 122 Caribbean tourism related businesses, Clifton Reader, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), noted data which show approximately 93 per cent of the respondents having fair to extremely positive outlooks for their businesses.

Reader in regarding the results as encouraging given the many months of challenges, said that destinations though happy with the progress, have been to date treading cautiously. “We are facing the headwinds but we have great optimism,” he stated.