Report: Hurricanes, New Supply Affecting Caribbean Performance

CAYMAN ISLANDS—Integra Realty Resources recently released its “Caribbean Hospitality Market Update: 2nd Quarter 2018” report.

Highlights of the report include the following:

  • While tourist arrivals to the region continue to grow at a modest pace, hotel performance has been relatively flat over the last 12 months. Some of this can be attributed to the effects of the 2017 hurricanes, but other factors include the rapidly increasing supply of new hotel inventory and the continued expansion of Airbnb.
  • Some destinations, such as Grand Cayman, St. Lucia and Jamaica, are benefitting from tourists that would normally travel to destinations where there are a number of temporary hotel closures, such as Puerto Rico, USVI, BVI and Sint Maarten.
  • The Dominican Republic is likely benefitting from a stigma that is negatively affecting Mexico relating to safety concerns. In addition, there have been a number of very large hotels recently developed in the Dominican Republic, which are effectively destinations themselves and have the effect of increasing the critical mass in that location.
  • All metrics point to a mature market that will require nurturing with respect to creative marketing in order to maintain growth in hotel performance in keeping with increasing supply.