Caribbean tourism uphill struggle continues

NEW YORK, CMC – A senior official of the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Tuesday warned that the Caribbean “is barely keeping its head above water” amid predictions that the sector will record a slight increase in tourist arrivals in 2013. CTO Director of Research and Information Technology, Winfield Griffith, told a workshop that forms part of the Caribbean Week activities here, that the figures show the region did not outperform areas such as Asia and the Pacific last year. He said overall, worldwide, there had been a 3.8 per cent increase in visitor arrivals in 2012 and that "Asia and the Pacific, they were ahead of Africa slightly and the Caribbean followed in third position”.