Above: Suriname

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Suriname saw a solid improvement in tourism arrival numbers in 2013, according to data from the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

The country welcomed 202,225 stopover visitors in the first 10 months of 2013, a 4.8 percent over the same period in 2012, according to the CTO numbers.

The country’s growth was buoyed by a strong winter 2013 season, during which it saw an 8.5 percent improvement in stopover numbers.

Crucially, though, despite the improvement, the country actually saw an overall drop in tourism from the United States, Canada and Europe.

But while arrivals from the United States, Europe and Canada all fell by at least 6.1 percent, arrivals from markets outside of those three rose by 16.1 percent, or a total of 113.164 visitors.

While the CTO data did not break down that category, the improvement seems to be largely the result an increase in South American tourists, and a bump in tourism from within the CARICOM community.

Traditionally, former colonial power the Netherlands has been the country’s largest tourism source market.