March 31, 2023
The region’s stopover tourist arrival recovery after the Global Financial Crisis was mixed – Jamaica and Dominican Republic recovered in 2009, Aruba and St. Lucia in 2010, Cayman and Belize in 2011, Curaçao in 2012, Anguilla in 2013, Montserrat and Grenada in 2014, Barbados and the Bahamas in 2015, Antigua and Barbuda in 2016, Bermuda in 2017, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica in 2019, and St. Kitts and Nevis never fully recovered when the pandemic hit. Even though the tourism sector was the hardest hit globally by the pandemic, and one would therefore expect it to take the longest to recover, things are a bit different this time – the Dominican Republic and Curaçao already recovered their 2019 stopover arrival levels in 2022, Aruba, Jamaica, and the Bahamas and St. Lucia are expected to recover this year. In terms of their proportion of 2019 levels recovered, Grenada is currently around 82%, Belize 74%, Anguilla 72%, Dominica 68%, St. Kitts and Nevis 66%, St. Vincent and the Grenadines 65%, Barbados 64%, Cayman 57%, and Bermuda 54%.
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