LONDON — Year over year tourist arrivals to the Caribbean increased by 9.7% in the first half of 2019 according to newly releases stats from the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).

The news comes three weeks after the CTO announced its plans to close its two marketing offices in New York City and London, and to reassess operations at its Barbados headquarters.

At a news conference at World Travel Market in London today, CTO Chairman Dominic Fedee said the region’s performance was more than double the global average of 4.4%.

From January – June 2019 there were 17.1 million tourist trips to the Caribbean, 1.5 million more than in the first six months of 2018.

Travel from Canada rose 2.4%, for a total of 2.1 million overnight visitors, while the U.S. with 8.9 million was up more than 20%.

The European market was flat, with just a 0.4% increase to 2.9 million trips, with the UK market was down by 1.7%. The UK’s negative performance was especially felt in Cuba, which fell by 22%, and the D.R., down by 15.3%.

Meanwhile cruise demand for the Caribbean was so strong in the first six months of 2019 that there was a record 16.7 million cruise visits, 1.3 million more than in the same period of 2018.

For the rest of 2019 the CTO is forecasting an increase of 5 – 7% in stayover arrivals and a 4 – 5% rise in cruise passenger visits.