Perhaps because the Caribbean is generally thought of as a leisure destination whose primary tourist attractions are sun, sea and sand, there is a tendency to view the region as one homogenous block, but it is far from that. The 29 island nations and protectorates, which make up this part of the world have some commonalities. Most were born out of European expansion and subsequent colonialisation, the slave trade, the sugar and tobacco industries, wrecking, piracy, rum-running and various other nefarious wheelings and dealings - but their people, influenced by a blend of cultures, do not think as one.

The tourist offerings too, are very different. The Dominican Republic for instance, launched its hotel industry in the 1980s and 1990s by specializing in cheap holidays aimed at the mass market (though that is slowly changing as the travel business seeks to diversify its product), while the Cayman Islands, an offshore banking haven, woos the conference and incentive market. Well versed in the demands of business travellers, with high levels of hotel service and efficiency to match (something that, unfortunately, cannot always be said of other Caribbean nations), the Cayman Islands, which has its own stock exchange, is now the fifth-largest offshore financial centre in the world, after London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and New York.

This diversity of tourism offerings has spawned a wide range of accommodation in many different types of settings - from family-run hostelries with a couple of dozen rooms (as one finds on the Out Islands of the Bahamas) to the large, all-inclusive "villages" that are characteristic of Jamaica's coastal resorts.

Geographically too, the Caribbean region is enormously varied. Some countries are indeed little more than islands, with tiny populations. St. Kitts and Nevis, for example, which is home to 40,400 people covers only 36 square kilometres of land. Cuba (population 11 million) and the Dominican Republic (7.4 million) on the other hand, are fair sized countries with diverse landscapes and enough undeveloped land to allow for further expansion. (Many of the smaller islands have reached saturation point.)

The entire region - including Bermuda and the Bahamas which, geographically, are in the Atlantic Ocean rather than in the Caribbean Sea but for the purposes of this report are included - is home to just over 37 million people. Almost half that number - 16.9 million visitors (down from 17.4 million in 2000) came to the Caribbean in 2001.

The drop in the number of visitors last year was triggered by the sluggish economy in the USA and Europe and the after effects of September 11th but until then, the Caribbean travel industry had been growing by leaps and bounds - not least because of the development of tourism infrastructure (including, of course, accommodation) throughout the 1990s.

As can be seen from Figure 7, international tourist arrivals in 2000 had more than doubled since the mid-1980s - from 8 million in 1985, to just over 17 million in 2000. (These figures refer to travellers who stay in hotels and in other types of accommodation, not to Caribbean cruise passengers who generally spend only a day or less at each destination.)

In 2001, as illustrated in Figure 2, the Caribbean garnered 14% of the market share in international (stopover) arrivals in the Americas, making it the second most popular destination after the USA and Canada.

Data sources

Individual countries gather data that is analysed and disseminated by the Research and Information Management Division of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO). Headquartered in Barbados, with international marketing offices in New York, London and Toronto, the CTO has 32 member governments and dozens of private sector companies. Its mandate is to act as the Caribbean's tourism development agency and to help members with tourism research, marketing and the development of human resources. It also assists members to design travel surveys and to develop methodologies for tracking the economic impact of tourism in the region.

The Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), which is headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico, also gathers tourism data, with particularly relevance to the accommodation sector. Founded 40 years ago, the CHA is the Caribbean's principal public policy advocate. The Association is also involved in the training of hotel staff (through the Caribbean Hospitality Training Institute), management of the environment and upgrading of hotel facilities. Its membership comprises 37 national and regional hotel associations. The CHA's Construction Report, which is published every couple of months, keeps track of new hotel developments, renovations and expansions.

Data have also been provided by the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization (WTO); the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC); and the World Bank. Other sources include: The Globe and Mail; The Financial Times; ABTA Magazine; The Economist; Canadian Travel Press; The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), Global Hospitality Resources Inc., The Nassau Guardian and the Caribbean Cruise Lines Association (CLIA). Information has also been provided by individual hotel companies and leading travel industry personnel, by telephone and during personal interviews.