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Tourism in the Caribbean

A billion-dollar business

The former dominance of agriculture is being displaced by mass tourism in the Caribbean, which accounts for between 25 and 35 per cent of the total economy of the region. Tourism is also the major foreign exchange earner in the region, accounting for one-quarter of foreign exchange earnings, and one-fifth of all jobs (ranging from direct dependence on tourism, such as working in hotels and on the beaches, to indirect involvement such as banking and farming).

Tourism receipts in 1996 were in excess of US$1 billion each for Jamaica, the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, within the range of US$ 250-725 million for four of the other more popular tourism destinations in the region, and less than US$ 81 million each for the rest.

According to the February 1999 report of the World Travel and Tourism Council, the Caribbean is the most economically dependent on tourism of the 13 world regions identified by the Council. For example, in 1999, on a global basis, the WTTC estimated that the combined effects of travel and tourism account for 11.7 percent of world Gross Domestic Product (GDP): [but] for the Caribbean, this figure is 20.6 percent, and for some islands, such as Anguilla, it is over 65 percent. (Estimates of total GDP and sectorial contributions to GDP in the smaller islands of the Caribbean are difficult to verify because of the historically large role of remittances in many islands, and because of the more recent distortions introduced by offshore purchasing of tourist packages and other services, such as financial services.)