“Challenges Facing Caribbean Tourism: Increased Operating Costs, Low Labor and More”

After the pandemic, the Caribbean has been one of the tourism markets that has recovered fastest worldwide and although there is optimism to continue advancing, it faces six main threats.

Among these threats are: the increase in operating costs, low labor, the rise in air ticket rates, global competition, pressure from governments to increase taxes and economic uncertainty continues, as they identified in the survey carried out in February by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), as collected by Travel Pulse.

Adding to the above, the respondents also expressed their concerns about crime and security and poor infrastructure, environmental degradation with the issue of climate change, sargassum and waste management. And to this they added the lack of a more strategic regional marketing approach.

On the other hand, companies would be earning less to cover the debts left by the pandemic, according to Nicola Madden-Greig, president of the CHTA, who believes that this is not the time to increase taxes.

as reported REPORTUR.mx, the recovery of destinations in the Caribbean during 2022 was almost complete, with the exception of Cuba, which is still well below 2019 levels. However, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico exceeded the number of pre-pandemic visitors, while Colombia was very close to reaching its full recovery. (Cuba is far behind in the recovery of the Caribbean in 2022).