You can see the ships. They’re in just about every port in the Caribbean, bringing thousands of passengers to their shores.
But what’s not always clear is how much money these passengers are actually spending in the Caribbean. But a new report from the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association sheds significant light on that question.
And one country stands out: The Bahamas, the clear leader in cruise tourism expenditures in the wider region, with a total of $654.9 million in the 2023-2024 cruise tourism season.
But what about everyone else?
According to the report, the next-biggest beneficiary was Cozumel in Mexico at $483.1 million, the US Virgin Islands at $258.1 million; the Dominican Republic, with a total of $251.4 million, followed by St Maarten at $237.8 million and Puerto Rico at $201.9 million.
The numbers were revealed to Caribbean Journal in a report called Economic Contribution of Cruise Tourism to the Destination Economies, which showed a total of $4.27 billion in the wider region last season in cruise tourism expenditures — 27 percent higher than the record set in the previous study back in 2018.
“We could not be prouder of these results and what they mean for the lives and livelihoods of so many throughout the Caribbean and Latin America,” said Michele Paige, CEO, FCCA. “In addition to showing what cruise tourism brings to these destinations’ economies, many of the study’s findings will also serve as the foundation of building further mutual success between cruise lines and destination stakeholders.”
So what else did the study reveal?
Average spend per passenger rose for 26 of 31 member destinations in the Caribbean, with 14 destinations showing average spend rates of over $100 per passenger.
Overall, 33.3 million passenger and crew visited the Caribbean last season, a 13 percent increase compared to the previous study.
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