Tourist arrivals to the Caribbean increased in 2004

by Marcia Braveboy
Caribbean Net News Correspondent

Thursday, February 10, 2005

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad: Though the region was hurricane-battered in the latter part of last year, it did not prevent tourists from visiting various islands of the Caribbean region.

The Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) disclosed that nearly 22 million tourists visited the Caribbean for the year 2004; a seven percent increase from 2003 according to the tourism organization; after it conducted a study of its thirty-two member territories and countries.

The study also revealed that the regional islands experienced a thirteen percent rise in cruise ship passengers after arrivals amounted to approximately twenty million.

In order to woo visitors to the region, hotels in some Caribbean islands compromised by lowering their rates.

The decline in the value of the US dollar against other major world currencies may also have persuaded more Americans to visit the Caribbean. Prices in the islands are generally tied to the greenback instead of European or other currencies. Thus, not only would American travellers have been insulated from the decline in the value of the US dollar, visitors from Europe and other regions would have benefited from the higher value of their currencies.

It is reported that visitors to the Caribbean spent about twenty-one billion US dollars compared to an approximate sum of twenty billion estimated for 2003.