Caribbean draws 9 million visitors
- Caribbean tourism entered 2026 stronger than expected, with hotel occupancy rising in January, February and March as islands from Jamaica to Cayman posted gains. - March hotel occupancy reached 79%, up 6.5% from a year earlier, while Jamaica topped 1 million first-quarter visitors and the U.S. Virgin Islands hit 303,388. - The rebound follows a record 35 million stay-over visits in 2025, above 2019 levels. (onecaribbean.org)
The Caribbean’s 2026 tourism season opened hotter than expected, with hotel occupancy rising for three straight months and several islands posting strong first-quarter gains. (caribjournal.com) Caribbean Journal, citing STR hotel data, reported occupancy at 71.4% in January 2026, 76.5% in February and 79% in March. March was up 6.5% from a year earlier and higher than any month in 2025, 2024, 2023 or 2022. (caribjournal.com) The regional backdrop was already solid. The Caribbean Tourism Organization said international stay-over arrivals rose 2.5% in 2025 to an estimated 35 million visits, about 900,000 more than in 2024, with every month beating its 2019 counterpart. (onecaribbean.org) That 2025 growth was uneven. The Caribbean Tourism Organization said the first quarter of 2025 slipped 0.3%, then arrivals rebounded 5% in the second quarter and 5.6% in the third before flattening to 0.2% growth in the fourth. (onecaribbean.org) Early 2026 looks firmer at the destination level. Jamaica’s tourism minister said the country welcomed more than 1 million visitors in the first quarter and generated US$956 million in foreign-exchange earnings. (cruiseindustrynews.com) (our.today) The U.S. Virgin Islands said it logged 303,388 arrivals in the first quarter of 2026, up 12% from a year earlier. St. Thomas accounted for 246,772 of those arrivals, a 15% increase. (viconsortium.com) (travelagewest.com) The Cayman Islands reported 49,075 stayover visitors in February, up 10.1% year over year and just 3% below the all-time February high set in 2020. Total February visitation, including cruise passengers, reached 208,992. (gov.ky) Turks and Caicos also reported gains on the stayover side. The destination said it welcomed 203,587 stayover visitors from January through March, up 5% from the same period in 2025, even as first-quarter cruise passenger arrivals fell 16% to 344,287. (suntci.com) One reason the rebound looks different this year is market mix. Caribbean Journal pointed to a shift in Canadian demand after airlines stopped Cuba flights in early February because of jet-fuel shortages, sending some travelers to other Caribbean destinations instead. (caribjournal.com) The Caribbean Tourism Organization’s 2025 data also show the region is leaning heavily on the United States. U.S. arrivals rose 0.5% to about 17 million last year, while Canada fell 5.3% to 3.1 million and Europe fell 3.3% to about 5.1 million. (onecaribbean.org) The picture is not a single regional total of “9 million visitors” so much as a cluster of strong island reports layered on top of a record 2025. By late April, the clearest signal was that Caribbean demand had accelerated again after a softer, uneven stretch in 2025. (onecaribbean.org) (caribjournal.com)
