In December 2019, the world was hit by COVID-19 - a contagious disease which is currently resulting in governmental measures with societal and economic bearings of unprecedented dimensions.

Some of those impacts are already being felt throughout the world, others are looming and very difficult to predict, which leads analysts to a higher than usual level of caution and reluctance when dealing with future numbers. By the beginning of March 2020, the pandemic had arrived in the Caribbean, albeit still at a significantly lower pace of virus spread and number of infected than in the USA or several European countries.

Commonly recognized and known for world-class, tropical beaches, all year sun, cultural and culinary diversity, and its jovial, joyful-friendly island-inhabitants, the Caribbean sources much of its attractiveness from an exclusive, yet diverse image of paradise - a place where foreign visitors are met with envy from home. Beaches, all year sun and adventure in the midst of paradise will always sell - this was the simple, yet effective formula by developers over the last few decades. The natural environments and climatic conditions paired with political stability and fiscal incentives for investors in tourism products have paved the way to steady, healthy growth in the region.

2019 had been characterized by all-time high stay over arrival numbers and a noticeable increase of major new branded hotel projects from leading international hotel chains, including increasingly innovative product types.

Known as one of the most stable and resilient tourism regions in the world, past major crises and adverse events have been regularly followed up by successful bounce backs - although experts unanimously agree that the current pandemic is a whole different animal when compared to past crises in recent history. With 13.9% contribution of tourism to GDP, the Caribbean is considered to be the most tourism-dependent region in the world, although this percentage varies among the destinations and depends to a considerable degree on the size of the country and economy.

This report seeks to diagnose the short/medium-term direction the market can be expected to take.

  • Industry performance, KPIs and tendencies before the COVID-19 outbreak;
  • Intensifying region specific difficulties and advantages in the light of the current crisis;
  • The implications for the future business and what Horwath HTL believes will be crucial for the sector;
  • Responses and measures hotel-chains, owners and operators are expected to take and/or being forced into.