>
> http://www.cha-cast.com/tourism.htm
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> [TN00572A.gif (3542 bytes)]Economics & Tourism in the
> Caribbean
>
> The Travel & Tourism Industry in the
> Caribbean region is vital to the Caribbean
> infrastructure, its people and its
> communities. Tourism growth and a profitable
> hotel industry is dependent on healthy and
> sustainable operating systems. As the Tourism
> Industry expands, competition for the tourist
> dollar increases proportionately.
>
>
>
> [BS00612A.gif (1917 bytes)] More than 500,000
> people are
> employed in the tourism industry in the
> Caribbean which means one in every four jobs.
>
> [BS00612A.gif (1917 bytes)]In 1995 the region
> earned $11.8
> billion of foreign trade from overseas
> visitors.
>
> [BS00612A.gif (1917 bytes)] Over the next
> decade an
> estimated 36% increase of tourist arrivals is
> anticipated.
>
> [BS00612A.gif (1917 bytes)] In the Caribbean,
> Travel & Tourism
> has the potential of expanding 70% creating
> 2.2 million jobs by 2007.
>
> [BS00612A.gif (1917 bytes)] Tourism accounts
> for roughly 25% of
> exported good and services which contributes
> 31% of the Gross Domestic Product; the
> largest relative producer of travel and
> tourism in the world.
>
> The Caribbean has pristine attractions such
> as coral reefs, exquisite beaches, tropical
> forests, five star resorts, rare exotic
> animals, warm climate, warm and friendly
> people and beautiful vegetation which draws
> in tourists from around the world.
>
> Scuba diving is an increasing valuable
> attraction in the Caribbean and provides 57%
> of scuba diving tours worldwide.
>
> An estimated $1.2 billion will be earned from
> scuba diving alone by 2005.
>
> Intra-Caribbean tourism is being targeted for
> future growth as well. Travel and tourism
> along with Telecommunications and Information
> Technology are predicted to be the three
> leading services in the 21st Century's
> economy.
>
> ----------------------------------------------
>
> [Image]
> Tourist arrivals to the Caribbean.
> Source: World Tourism Organization (WTO).
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> International tourist travel has grown
> steadily over the years, except for short
> periods of slow growth associated with the
> Oil Crisis during the early 1980s and the
> Gulf War in the early 1990s.
>
> Between 1980 and 1996, world international
> tourist arrivals increased by 108.8%, or by
> an average of 4.7% annually. Over this
> period, the receipts from international
> tourism grew by 311%, from US$103 billion to
> US$423 billion, or at an average growth rate
> of 9.2% per annum.
>
> Tourist (stay-over) arrivals in the Caribbean
> have more than doubled between 1980 and 1996.
> During this period, tourist arrivals grew by
> 115.7% (or at an average annual rate of
> 4.9%), which has been somewhat faster than
> the growth (4.7% per annum) in inter-national
> tourist arrivals worldwide. Cruise passenger
> visits to Caribbean destinations grew by an
> average of 6.6% per annum between 1980 and
> 1996.
>
> ----------------------------------------------
>
> [Image]
> Average annual growth rates for tourist
> arrivals to the Caribbean from the major markets
> between 1980 and 1996.
> Source: Caribbean Tourism Organization
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> In 1996, Caribbean destinations received a
> total of 25.54 million visitors, comprising
> 14.84 million tourist arrivals and 10.7
> million cruise passenger visits. Caribbean
> tourist arrivals increased by 2.4% in 1996
> and the number of cruise passenger visits by
> 10.9%. Gross expenditure by all visitors
> (tourists, cruise passengers and other
> excursionists) to the Caribbean in 1996
> reached an estimated US$13,340 million, an
> increase of 5.6% over 1995.
>
> The United States remains the most important
> source of tourists to the region, despite the
> steady fall in its share of total tourists
> arrivals to the region in recent years. The
> US share has declined from 61.8% of total
> arrivals in 1987, to 52.7% in 1992, and to
> 48.5% in 1996.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> [Image]
> The share of European tourists in the Caribbean.
> Source: Caribbean Tourism Organization
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> Furthermore, since Europeans generally stay
> longer than visitors from the other major
> markets, they account for an even higher
> share of the total bed nights spent by
> tourists in the region than their numbers
> would suggest.
>
> Tourists from Canada accounted for 5.8 % of
> all tourist arrivals in 1996, which was
> somewhat below its 7.4 % share in 1992.
>
> The share of tourists from Caribbean
> countries in the overall total has remained
> relatively stable between 1992 and 1996.
>
> By the end of 1996, there were an estimated
> 183.6 thousand hotel rooms in the 32
> reporting Caribbean countries. Five
> destinations had more than 10,000 hotel
> rooms: the Dominican Republic (35,729), Cuba
> (26,878), Jamaica (21,984), the Bahamas
> (13,288) and Puerto Rico (10,299). Four
> destinations: Aruba, Barbados, Guadeloupe and
> Martinique reported between 5,000 and 10,000
> rooms each. These nine destinations together
> accounted for around 75 % of the total
> accommodation stock in the Caribbean in 1996.
>
> The Caribbean’s room stock has more than
> doubled since 1980, and has grown by an
> average of 5.1% per annum since 1992. Of the
> 33.2 thousand new rooms added since 1992,
> nearly 59% (19.5 thousand) have been built in
> Cuba and the Dominican Republic. The room
> stock in these two destinations has grown by
> an average of 9.5% and 10% per annum
> respectively between 1992 and 1996.
>
> Over the period 1992 to 1995, there was a
> reduction in the number of hotel rooms in
> just a few of the Caribbean destinations:
> Anguilla and Antigua, Barbuda and Bahamas.
> Other destination also improving their room
> capacity by more than a thousand rooms were
> the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Martinique and
> St. Lucia. As far as the rate of increase in
> the room stock was concerned, between 1992
> and 1996 Grenada and St. Lucia shared the
> highest annual growth rate of 10.6% followed
> by the Dominican Republic with 10% and Cuba
> with 9.5%.
>
> Sources: Caribbean Tourism Organization
> Caribbean Basin Profile. 1997. Caribbean Latin American
> Action. Caribbean Publishing Co.
> Caribbean Hotel Association.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> Ecotourism Statistics
>
>
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