As parts of the Caribbean still not having put the woes behind it, modest ‘compensations’ are still forthcoming for some of the smaller, most vulnerable islands of a region in which there has been no shortage of crises this year. That said, some of the usually vulnerable islands of the region have had reason to smile recently in a year when the islands, along with other territories in the Caribbean got news that the Caribbean and Latin America has broken economic records insofar as earnings from tourism are concerned.
Antigua and Barbuda raked in a record $89 million in direct cruise tourism expenditures during the 2023-2024 cruise year, a performance which one report said, is “part of a historic surge across 33 Caribbean and Latin American destinations.” The report alludes to a new study by Business Research & Economic Advisors (BREA), commissioned by the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), which asserts that the region as a whole saw $4.27 billion in total cruise tourism expenditures—a 27% increase over the last study in 2018.