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The Caribbean has turned in record-breaking tourism and spend numbers for 2015, reported the Caribbean Tourism Organization at its annual State of the Industry press conference on Tuesday. For the first time since the CTO began keeping records, the Caribbean outperformed every major tourism region in the world. Overall tourism arrivals rose 7% to 28.7 million. This increase is much higher than the 4-5 % growth that was originally projected. Arrivals were significantly above the global rate of growth, which the World Tourism Organization puts at 4.4%.
Cruise passenger arrivals were not so buoyant, however, especially in the summer months when many cruise ships are redeployed to other regions. While Cayman, Jamaica and Puerto Rico – among the larger destinations – saw healthy gains of more than 5%, important destinations like St. Maarten and the US Virgin Islands saw cruise passenger arrivals drop about 5% and 10% respectively. For a breakdown of all the Caribbean cruise ports – as of Feb. 16, please click here.
Just as critical, island retailers throughout the Caribbean tell TMI that they are not seeing the increased spend in their stores. While we do not have any hard numbers to back up this statement, we would love to hear from operators throughout the region on the trends you are seeing in your stores. Read the CTO report on pages 1 & 2.
Market Research. Tax Free World Association has released the TFWA Alcohol Duty Free and Travel Retail Category Report compiled by Counter Intelligence Retail, that spells out key drivers to selling spirits in airports as well as barriers to sale. The report was based on approximately 1,000 shopper interviews conducted at four key airports across the globe. See highlights of the report on page 3.
Beauty Numbers. Prestige Beauty reports a good year in local markets in the US and Europe, with makeup sales especially strong, said NPD at the Cosmetic Executive Women’s CEW/NPD Year-in-Review Event in New York City earlier this month. See some of the highlights on page 3.
Supply Side. Estée Lauder Travel Retailing has released details of some of its key spring launches. See the latest from Estée Lauder, Clinique, Bobbi Brown and Jo Malone on page 3.
