Caribbean & Central America - October 2026

While the overall tourism story in the Caribbean in 2026 is one of modest recovery, there are very sharp variations. Cuba’s tourism sector is suffering a catastrophic contraction; Jamaica is trying to rebuild hotel capacity after Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall there in October 2025; and the Dominican Republic continues to surf a rising tide.

Cuba’s tourism numbers are terrible. The economic crisis, dollar shortages, and the collapse of the electricity grid have been catastrophic for the industry. In the first eight months of this year, 450,353 international visitors arrived in the country, a year-on-year drop of 64.4%. Canadian visitors, previously Cuba’s main source of tourism revenue, are down by over 70%. At the end of July Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said that around 73% of Cuba’s hotels are closed. Facing tighter US economic sanctions, international hotel chains such as Spain’s Meliá and Iberostar have progressively withdrawn from the country. US financial services companies Visa and Mastercard have stopped processing transactions in Cuba.

Because of a shortage of aviation fuel, airlines such as Air France, Spain’s Iberia, Chile-headquartered Latam and Air Canada are cutting back their flights to the island. The government hopes economic reforms may help; in early September it authorised private businesses to operate travel agencies and tour guides, an activity previously restricted to state-owned agencies. There have also been efforts to encourage domestic tourism as a stopgap.

But there is a real danger that the current cyclical recession will turn into a longer-term structural crisis. The loss of hotel capacity will not be easily or quickly replaced; jobs will close, and trained tourism staff could drift away in a damaging form of skills flight.

The problem facing Jamaica is of a different order. In January-August of this year 2.34m foreign visitors arrived in the country, spending an estimated US$2.5bn. That was 17% fewer visitors and 18% lower earnings than in the comparable period in 2025. However, this did not involve any structural issues, being mainly due to Hurricane Melissa, which destroyed a significant number of hotels and infrastructure. The tourism ministry says 70% of the country’s hotel rooms are now operational again, with the remaining 30% expected to be brought back into service later this year and into early 2027.

As Jamaica restores hotel capacity damaged by Hurricane Melissa, officials such as the Jamaica tourism board’s (JTB) deputy director of tourism for the Americas, Phillip Rose, suggests that recovery is gaining momentum. A 23 September report by Jamaican government news agency Jamaica Information Service (JIS) cites Rose as saying that while total available airline seats were down by 22% in the first eight months of the year compared with the same period in 2025, the airline load factor has increased by 3.8 percentage points to 85%, which he takes as a sign of a potential demand recovery.

Airlines such as Panama’s Copa, Colombia’s Wingo, UK-headquartered Virgin Atlantic, and British Airways are stepping up their services to Kingston and Montego Bay. The recovery has been somewhat slower at Sangster International Airport, which serves the Montego Bay/Negril area, because several major resorts there are still being rebuilt and repaired. Cruise tourism is also reported to be performing well. The government wants to expand cruise ports beyond Montego Bay, Ocho Ríos and Negril, to incorporate others such as Kingston and Port Antonio. The Disney Destiny cruise ship is to begin calling at Falmouth, a town on Jamaica’s north coast, in October.

In contrast, the Dominican Republic’s tourism story is unambiguously upbeat. There were 8.56m visitor arrivals in January-August this year, up by 6.9% on the comparable period in 2025, and a 58.9% increase on the same period in 2019, the year before the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Tourism Minister David Collado noted that last year 6.61m arrivals were by air, and 1.95m arrivals were by water on cruise ships. The main sources for visitors were the US (44%), Canada (9%), Colombia (8%) and Argentina (5%). Hotel capacity utilisation currently stands at around 68%, meaning there is room for growth.

Speaking at the French tourism fair in September (IFTM Top Resa), Collado said he had met with investors to discuss new tourism projects in the country worth approximately US$600m, on local media reports. Of that total, US$100m relates to a luxury resort project by the Ibiza-based Matutes family, which controls Palladium Hotel Group. Collado welcomed a decision from Air France, which suspended flights to the Dominican Republic in 2023, to return to the country. Italy’s ITA Airways has also announced a new weekly flight to Santo Domingo.  Punta Cana remains the main arrival airport and holiday resort; government officials say they are seeking to develop new areas to geographically diversify the sector.

Region-wide data is compiled by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO). It reports that there were 35m “international stay-over arrivals” in the region last year, up by 2.5% on 2024. According to the latest World Tourism Barometer report by United Nations Tourism, released in September, in the first half of this year tourist arrivals in the Caribbean were down by 0.1% compared with the same period in 2025.

Royal Caribbean takes slice of Sandals

On 23 September US-based cruise ship operator Royal Caribbean said that it had agreed to take a 50% stake in Jamaican resorts operator Sandals Resorts International (SRI) for US$3bn. Royal Caribbean has secured committed debt financing from US investment bank Morgan Stanley to fund the investment. The transaction is expected to close in early 2027, subject to customary approvals and closing conditions. In recent years there have been reports that Sandals was seeking to sell. Sandals was involved in controversy in the early 2000s when it had a policy effectively barring same-sex couples from staying at its resorts; the policy was dropped in 2004.