Tourism in Barbados and the Caribbean is poised for continued growth this year.
Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) secretary general Dona Regis-Prosper is confident that will be the outcome, following what she called “another remarkable year” in 2025 for land and cruise tourism.
While acknowledging that the sector has some difficulties, including geopolitical challenges, changing travel patterns and shifting economic realities in traditional source markets, she said product and experience development had the potential to accelerate the region’s tourism performance in 2026.
Regis-Prosper was speaking in an interview at the CAF Latin America [Development Bank of Latin America] and Caribbean Economic Forum in Panama.
“We continue our recovery from the pandemic and more importantly, 2025 represented continuous growth, both in terms of the stay-over side of the business, as well as the cruise arrivals,” she said.
“We continue to see progress beyond numbers, but progress in terms of product development, in terms of experience development, because product is one thing, experience is really what keeps people coming back.
“So we continue to see our CTO members pivot in terms of reimagining how we’ve always done tourism. We recognise that the base of our product is the sun and the sea, and that’s not going to change, but in addition to that, we’re moving to community-based tourism, culinary experiences, the orange economy, our culture, our people, bringing that in addition to what we have traditionally marketed the region as.”
The CTO boss said the theme this year is One Caribbean: Infinite Experiences, which celebrates the diversity of the region.
“We look at the Caribbean, we look at the rivers of Dominica, the lush green hills of Jamaica, the sandy, white beaches of Barbados. There’s something for everybody in the Caribbean – our sports tourism, our cricket, our people, our athletes, our entertainers,” she noted.
“It’s a really lovely melting pot in the Caribbean. So we celebrate in that but at the same time, there is so much more that connects us in the region than divides us. So we also celebrate that and present that to our potential visitors in terms of the promise that we make when we create those visitor experiences in the region.”
Regis-Prosper said while 2026 had challenges, “we believe in the strength of the Caribbean” and its tourism product.
“We’re projecting that we will continue to do well, while it may vary across the region, but in terms of numbers, we expect to hold our numbers from 2025. We do not expect that we will see significant losses based on the forward bookings that we have. This is a strong product, and we are no strangers, in the region, to managing in crisis and managing setbacks,” she stated.
“We believe that a vacation is something that is necessary and we promote that. It’s the one certainty that we have in life, that we need time, we need rejuvenation, we need recharge and that’s what the Caribbean does.”
The major opportunities she envisaged this year included “developing our product beyond the beach, beyond the sun, beyond the sand, but going into the communities, creating opportunities that benefit the citizenry of the Caribbean, creating opportunities that enhance our environment, creating opportunities that bring investment to the region, creating opportunities where we’re not seen as small markets, but a group of destinations coming together to create greater opportunities for investment potential in the region”.
The opportunities Regis-Prosper saw for tourism’s improved performance also involved exploring “new emerging markets” and she welcomed the support from CAF in this regard.
“The CAF bank has been a wonderful friend and partner to the Caribbean beyond tourism. So this is an amazing opportunity. When I show up as the secretary general for CTO, I show up representing my 25 islands, from Bahamas to Guyana.”
“So this is a wonderful opportunity to show the Caribbean as a trading block, not small markets, but as a group of islands coming together. There are 40 million people who live in the Caribbean; that in itself is powerful. So this is an opportunity where we get to showcase that.”
She added: “This is an opportunity where we get to explore new markets. Panama is a new market. There’s great connectivity between Panama and Trinidad, Panama and Barbados. So I believe that there are opportunities to strengthen and to grow that, and Panama serves as a wonderful hub into the rest of Latin America.”
