By Alexander Britell
How many people are visiting the Caribbean this year?
For the first half of 2015, the region welcomed 14.8 million tourist arrivals, a 5.8 percent improvement over the same period in 2014, according to data from the Caribbean Tourism Organization.
The data were revealed by current CTO Chairman and Barbados Tourism Minister Richard Sealy during a briefing at the CTO’s State of the Industry Conference in Curacao this week.
The 14.8 million number represented 2.8 percent of all global tourist arrivals in the period.
So far, the Dutch Caribbean saw the greatest improvement of all sub-regions, posting an 8.5 percent increase in arrivals.
Overall, the United States was the region’s largest source market, with 7.3 million tourist visits between January and June, a 5.3 percent increase over the first half of 2014.
Last year, 26 million stay over tourists visited the Caribbean.
The numbers do not include cruise passengers.