BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) says tourist arrivals to the Caribbean region grew by nearly two percent during the first half of 2025, despite softening demand from North America.
Speaking during the 2025 State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC), which is taking place here through Friday, the CTO’s database administrator, Paul Garnes, said that overall, the region still recorded arrivals 6.1 percent above pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
“Considering tourist arrivals then, in the first half of the year 2025, the Caribbean tourism industry showed strong resilience, continuing to grow despite external challenges,” Garnes said.
He said that stay-over arrivals remained above 2024 and pre-pandemic 2019 levels, signaling a sustained recovery. Noting that while growth has moderated compared to the sharp rebound of recent years, the sector continues to move positively forward.
Preliminary estimates indicate 18.5 million arrivals in the first six months of 2025, up from 18.2 million in 2024 and 17.5 million in 2019, representing a 1.9% year-on-year increase and a 6.1% rise over 2019 levels.
Performance differed across Caribbean destinations, but the majority of the 24 reporting destinations achieved positive growth.
“Fifteen destinations reported higher arrivals compared to the same period in 2024,” Garnes said, adding that the top performers were Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Curacao, Trinidad and Tobago, and Dominica.
Declines range from 1% to 10.7%, driven mainly by external shocks, recovery from environmental events, and natural limits on further rapid expansion.
At the half-year mark, most Caribbean destinations recorded arrivals above pre-pandemic levels, underscoring their resilience and continued growth, Garnes said, adding that among the 17 destinations with growth, expansion ranged from 1.3 percent to 68.2 percent compared to 2019.
“By contrast, a smaller group of destinations still lag behind pre-pandemic volumes, showing an uneven pace of recovery,” he said.
The monthly data, however, show that some of the uncertainty and volatility at the start of the year has begun to settle.
During the first quarter of the year, arrivals decreased by 0.6 per cent compared to 2024, attributed to softer demand, reduced airlift, and seasonal timing. Despite the dip, volumes during the first quarter were still 3.6 times higher than in 2019, showing that the long-term recovery trend remains intact.
However, the second quarter tells a much stronger story with monthly arrivals to the region ranging between 2.8 and 3.1 million tourists.
Compared to 2024, April was up 8.4 percent; May, 2.2 percent; and June, 3.7 percent, with overall growth in Q2 rising to 4.8 percent, representing some 8.9 million visitors to the region.
“This growth has more than offset the small dip in quarter one, showing clear momentum as the year progressed.”
Garnes said several factors contributed to this rebound, including the fact that Easter was in April this year, the international cricket series with Ireland and England, the delayed Liberation Day tariff changes, expanded marketing efforts, improved air connectivity, and the addition of new hotel capacity.
“When compared to pre-pandemic levels, quarter two was robust, up nearly 9 per cent over 2019, a clear sign that the region is on a growth trajectory.”
Garnes said the overall performance showed a softening in major northern markets driven by economic uncertainty and shifting consumer behavior.
This was partially driven by stronger demand from South America.
However, the United States remains the region’s primary market, accounting for approximately half of all visitors to the area, followed by Europeans at 14 percent and Canadians at just under 10 percent.
At the same time, just over nine million people visited the Caribbean from the United States, which was a slight increase compared to 2024.
However, the United States remains the Caribbean’s anchor market, accounting for nearly half of all visitors, although growth momentum has slowed.
Meanwhile, Aliyyah Shakeer, the CTO’s director of research, said that data from the first quarter of 2025 show that room rates in the region continue to rise, even as occupancy has slipped.
Shakeer said the average daily rate rose by just over three percent, reaching US$424, but occupancy slipped by 1.4 percent to 73 percent.
“But even with that, the overall room revenues still grew by almost three per cent, held by a steady supply, which was up just less than one per cent,” she said, adding that it appears that 19 properties are under construction across the region.
In terms of short-term rentals, data collected by CTO from Airbnb for 24 destinations in the region showed that the sector remained relatively strong in 2024.
“By the end of 2024, there were about 79,500 active listings across the region, and this was up just 10 per cent compared to 2023,” Shakeer said.
“However, as we fast forward into the first quarter of 2025, we saw a small dip or small pullback in listings of about 78,000; but compared to the same time in 2024, it is still a healthy increase of more than five per cent.”
Shakeer said the activity numbers tell a much stronger story, with check-ins rising by 7% and room nights increasing by 12%.
“So altogether, this means that there were 1 million check-ins and 5 million room-nights per the short-term rental economy in just the first three months of the year. What’s more is that the average length of stay is moving upwards, moving from 4.4 days to 4.6 days,” Shakeer said.
and then  says tourist arrivals to the Caribbean region grew by nearly two percent during){kind=link}