Canadians Crazy About The Caribbean

In this week’s issue of Canadian Travel Press, assistant editor Greg Coates reports that a nasty winter, easy access and a unique product has Canadians once again flocking to the Caribbean with tourist arrivals from Canada up 3.3% during the first three months of 2014 over the same period last year.

That’s well above the 1.3% rise in arrivals from the US, but below the 6.7% increase from Europe.

Last week was Caribbean Week in Toronto and Beverly Nicholson Doty, chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), thanked Canadians for their support and noted that some 1.3 million Canadians visited the region between January and March.

This is slightly behind Europe’s approximate 1.5 million. The US with just under 3.5 million and continues to be the largest provider of tourists to the Caribbean.

The tourism official also thanked the media for getting the word out on all the Caribbean has to offer.

“You tell stories that go beyond the beach,” she said. “There are the people, the cultures and the history.

The Caribbean is a unique place and one that you can visit over and over again.”

Nicholson Doty noted that 13 of the CTO’s 30-member destinations have shown improved numbers from Canada so far this year. Leading the way with an increase of more than 10% from last year are Anguilla, The Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Montserrat, Saint Lucia and St. Kitts & Nevis.

Globally, the Caribbean is also performing better so far this year when compared to 2013 when tourist arrivals grew by a modest 1.8%. Arrivals to the region during the first quarter of 2014 are up 2.2% and based on current trends are expected to exceed 3% by year end. Destinations seeing the biggest percentage in increases are Belize, the British Virgin Islands and Montserrat.

For the full story in this week’s issue of Canadian Travel Press, click here.