For years, the conventional wisdom was that an eventual end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba would open the floodgates for millions of curious Americans dying to visit the once-forbidden island — while the rest of the Caribbean would, at least initially, suffer a sharp downturn in U.S. tourist arrivals.
St. Maarten and St. Kitts will soon be home to two unrelated mega-resorts that aim to dramatically boost tourism to both Eastern Caribbean islands.
Last year, Haiti received around 600,000 foreigners — half of them “diaspora Haitians” visiting family and friends. The other half was largely business executives and representatives of NGOs. This excludes the 600,000 cruise Haship tourists who called on Labadie, Royal Caribbean’s private island off the north coast of Haiti.