Travelers Flock To The Romantic Caribbean

May 31, 1987|By PETER FRANCESE, American Demographics

The islands of the Caribbean from Puerto Rico to the Bahamas are the fourth most popular international destination for U.S. travelers, after Canada, Mexico and Europe.

Travel to the Caribbean has been steadily increasing since 1981, which saw 2.5 million people visiting these tropical islands. Now visitors exceed 4 million a year. We don`t have figures by the month, but it`s certain that February is the No. 1 month for Caribbean travel.

Where do Americans like to go when they visit the Caribbean, that intricate network of islands, each with its own heritage and language? They tend to favor places where English is spoken. The most popular destinations for Americans are Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, followed by Jamaica, Bermuda, the Dominican Republic and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Canadians favored the Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. The largest numbers of Europeans were more adventurous and less afraid of other languages: They visited Martinque, Guadeloupe and Venezuela. And, where do Caribbeans go when they want to get away from home but not too far away: Barbados, Curacao and Puerto Rico.


Puerto Rico is by far the most popular destination for American visitors prepared to stay awhile. The Bahamas is next most popular and Jamaica is third. But some of the smaller and lesser known islands such as Antigua and St. Martin have seen much more dramatic growth rates.

Part of the change in who goes where is a result of changes in what kind of island vacations people take. Shorter cruises to islands near the U.S. mainland are favored over longer trips to islands in the eastern and southern part of the Caribbean, and the result is that cruise ship arrivals are way up. During 1985 there was a 16 percent increase in cruise ship bookings, compared to a 5 percent increase in 1984. But cruises to islands farther away declined. Cruise ship stops in Grenada were off by more than 75 percent, but that was probably due as much to the political situation as distance. However, stops at the Bahamas and Cayman Island have increased dramatically.

Of course some trends are a result of changes in people`s behavior. Three specific trends are: resisting traditional forms of accommodation, especially among young people and senior citizens; breaking summer and winter holiday vacations into shorter trips; and making fewer reservations, preferring spur- of-the-moment trips instead.


These changes reflect demographic trends in the traveling public. The average age of U.S. residents traveling abroad is mid-40s, mainly because that`s the beginning of the age of affluence and business travel. But the market includes an increasing number of baby boomers in their 30s and a growing number of senior citizens.

Older citizens especially have the leisure time to travel in or out of season, and can afford to take a trip without a lot of advance planning that often hinders young families from taking extended vacations. They also are the biggest users of cruise ship vacations, most of which frequent the Caribbean waters.

Baby boomers are often travelers on the lookout for new and exciting experiences.

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