Major Caribbean destinations see strong first quarter.

Published results from eleven major Caribbean destinations show they have experienced a good first quarter with ten of the eleven posting increases in the number of stopover visitors with only Bermuda posting a decline in stopover arrivals. Puerto Rico led the way with a 62.3% increase in non-resident hotel registrations as that destination recovered from the impact of 2017’s Hurricane Maria. Jamaica and Curacao both posted growth of between 10% - 15% while six other destinations saw growth of between 4% - 9%. 

​First Quarter Stopover Arrivals 2019

	2019	2018	% change
Antigua	90,619	85,248	6.3%
Barbados	210,336	204,317	2.9%
Belize	158,290	148,900	6.3%
Bermuda	38,349	40,326	-4.9%
Cayman Islands	145,804	134,170	8.7%
Curacao	127,157	110,866	14.7%
Dominican Republic	1,876,144	1,794,321	4.6%
Grenada	45,151	42,960	5.1%
Jamaica	708,297	625,002	13.3%
Puerto Rico*	435,578	268,424	62.3%
Saint Lucia	114,386	110,032	4.0%
sub-total	3,950,111	3,564,566	10.8%
* Non-Res Hotel Registrations

The strong growth may reflect some movement of business from Cancun and Riviera Maya as Cancun’s Airport saw a below average increase in international air arrivals of just 0.9% in the first three months of 2019 with hotel occupancies in both Cancun and Riviera Maya declining by 4.4 percentage points and 0.7 percentage points respectively.