Cuba Sees Highest Growth In Caribbean Tourism Arrivals

Crowds of foreign tourists walk at the historical center of Havana. (AFP PHOTO/YAMIL LAGE / AFP / YAMIL LAGE (Photo credit should read YAMIL LAGE/AFP/Getty Images)

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Feb. 17, 2016: The Spanish Caribbean island of Cuba led with double digit growth in 2015, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTO), latest tourist arrival data released Tuesday.

While Cuba fell behind the Dominican Republic in actual visitor stop overs for 2015, the communist nation managed to pull off the biggest spike of the year. Cuba saw double digit growth with a whopping 17.4 percent surge over nations in the region.

This translated to over 3.2 million visitors in 2015, with the most arrivals in March of last year. Cuba was second overall in the Caribbean to the Dominican Republic, which continued to lead with arrivals number of over 5.5 million last year but only an 8.9 percent growth.

Also experiencing a good year were Aruba, Barbados and Haiti. Both Barbados and Aruba saw arrivals increase by 15 percent over 2014 while Haiti saw a spike by 11 percent. Over 1.1 million tourists visited Aruba between January and November 2015 while just over half-million visited Barbados for the same period. Haiti saw over half-million visitors also for the 12 months of last year.

The third best performer for 2015 was Jamaica, which saw over 2.1 million stop over visitors last year. Bahamas and Puerto Rico were a distant fourth and fifth, respectively, with over 1.2 million tourists.

Here are the arrival numbers for the other destinations as released by the CTO:

Country Period Stop Over Visitors

Anguilla Jan. –Dec. 2015 73,232

Antigua & Barbuda Jan-Nov. 2015 222,123

Belize Jan. –Dec. 2015 341,124

Bermuda Jan-Nov. 2015 208,737

British Virgin Islands Jan. –Dec. 2015 393,018

Cayman Islands Jan. –Dec. 2015 385,379

Curacao Jan. –Dec. 2015 468,442

Dominica Jan. – July. 2015 48,154

Grenada Jan-Sept. 2015 107,183

Guyana Jan. –Dec. 2015 206,819

Martinique Jan. –Dec. 2015 487,364

Montserrat Jan-Nov. 2015 7,078

Saint Lucia Jan. –Dec. 2015 344,908

St. Kitts & Nevis Jan-May, 2015 52,294

St. Vincent & the Grenadines Jan-Nov. 2015 65,014

Suriname Jan-Aug. 2015 166,246

Trinidad & Tobago Jan. –Dec. 2015 439,749

Turks & Caicos Islands Jan. –Dec. 2015 298,960

U S Virgin Islands Jan. –Dec. 2015 769,058