Could this summer set new records for travel to the Caribbean?

A look at flight search data for the summer might well suggest that, according to the analytics firm ForwardKeys.

A growing interest in traveling to the region suggests that this could be a huge season for the Caribbean, the company revealed this week at the Caribbean Travel Forum in Antigua.

Destinations such as Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, and the Dominican Republic are all seeing a significant increase in flight searches.

This includes a 44 percent increase for Puerto Rico, a 22 percent increase for Saint Martin, and a 7 percent increase for the Dominican Republic.

St. Lucia and Curaçao, two equally strong destinations, posted a 2 % increase over the same period.

While the Caribbean has managed to smooth out what is known as the “seasonality effect” (that is, the difference between winter and summer demand) since the pandemic, this summer is expected to see even stronger performance.

This is particularly evident in the Canadian market data: the increases in searches for destinations such as the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, and Saint Kitts and Nevis are all over 100 %, including 193 % for the U.S. Virgin Islands this summer—despite a lack of direct flights.

Overall, this is a positive trend that is worth monitoring in the future.

I heard a number of opinions from the hoteliers I spoke with at the Caribbean Travel Marketplace about what they expect from summer travel.

What did I take away from this? The impression that the summer season is heavily dependent on the islands and hotels. Some hoteliers I spoke with were fairly optimistic, not anticipating any decline in summer demand this year, while others were more cautious.

This will depend largely on the individual efforts of each destination. Anguilla, for example, has made significant efforts to reposition itself as a year-round tourist destination, and those efforts appear to be paying off.

More Caribbean destinations will have to take the plunge and realize that summer is an opportunity not to be missed.