The Caribbean received around 800,000 less visitors in 2009 than in the previous year, a decline of 3.6 per cent in visitors’ arrivals to the 33 member countries of the Caribbean Tourist Organization (CTO) according to the organization’s Director of Research and Information Technology Winfield Griffith. However, the CTO official is confidently predicting moderate growth in tourist arrivals on the heels of positive indicators from the fourth quarter of last year.

However, Griffith has sounded a note of caution about

the immediate future of the regional tourism sector,

pointing out that while interest in the Caribbean remains “extremely high” the global economy is still in “a state

of flux.” The CTO official was particularly upbeat about

a 1.4 per cent increase in cruise visitor arrivals last year

after a 3 per cent decline in 2008, a circumstance which

he attributed to aggressive marketing and special prices offered by cruise liners.

During the first quarter of last year visitor arrivals in the region declined by 6.6 per cent and by 6.0 per cent and 2.0 per cent during the second and third quarters of the year respectively. During the fourth quarter, visitor arrivals jumped by a modest 1 per cent.

“We, along with our destination, hotel and cruise partners have continued to promote the region and we feel that in an increasingly hectic world with all the related pressures, now, more than ever, life needs the Caribbean and we’re here to make life easier for our visitors,” Griffith said.

Griffith is the latest high-profile regional official to make a pointed effort in recent weeks to ‘talk up’ the regional tourism sector. Two weeks ago CTO Chairman, Antigua’s Tourism Minister John Maginley sounded a similarly optimistic note  However, watches of the regional tourism industry will be mindful of the recent Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) 2009 report which pointed to the debilitating impact of the global economic and financial crisis on the tourism-dependent countries of the region.

Traditional Caribbean tourism destinations will also be mindful of the recent push by Cuba to increase its market share in the tourism sector through its own aggressive marketing of its sun, sand and sea destinations. Jardines del Rey, one of Cuba’s main tourist destinations for sun and beaches is reportedly benefiting from a more vigorous international marketing initiatives that could re-direct at least some of the traditional visitors to the English-speaking Caribbean.

Jardines Del Rey’s aggressive marketing drive will reportedly seek to push its natural suitability for water activities including diving and fishing. The destination reportedly has a hotel capacity of over 3,000 rooms.