Are Beaches Enough For a Competitive Caribbean Tourism Industry?

By the Caribbean Journal staff

More and more, Caribbean travel stakeholders say they are mindful that travelers are looking for more than just “sun, sand and sea.”

And it seems that’s borne out in the numbers, according to a study from travel research firm TCI Research.

While the Caribbean brings in around 20 million international travelers every year, it faces ever-increasing competition from a host of rivals, including the Mediterranean, Latin America and the Indian Ocean.

Despite strengths like leisure, local food quality and the shopping experience, TCI said, the region has a number of areas in which it struggles to stay competitive.

“The multifaceted Caribbean region is made of diverse destinations facing different tourism challenges and it offers a competitive experience to its visitors on tangible elements (beaches, accommodation, food…),” said TCI Research CEO Olivier Henry-Biabaud. “However some of them significantly suffer from a lack of competitiveness in more intangible criteria (environment, feeling of security, people hospitality…) raising issues they should address if they wish to build a more competitive and sustainable tourism.”

While the Caribbean shows high levels of satisfaction among travelers for its beaches, leisure activities, local food quality, shopping and local people, those categories show lower satisfaction levels than destinations like the Indian Ocean, Latin America and Asia.

Indeed, visitors to Latin America showed a higher level of satisfaction than the Caribbean in both leisure activities, local food and local people.

The report identified the Caribbean’s five “least competitive” criteria as cleanliness in and outside cities, feeling of security, transportation infrastructure, digital services and architecture/urbanization development.

The study was completed in reference to the Travelsat global survey, which includes more than 30,000 global interviews.