The various islands of the Caribbean region offer warm sunshine, beautiful beaches, and other natural attractions along with unique cultural experiences.

As a popular leisure destination, the islands have undergone development in response to the increasing influx of tourists and now offer a diversified portfolio of hotels.

The range in class, size, and brand of the hotel inventory varies from island to island, primarily due to the differences in the source and type of visitation, a result of the islands' distinct territorial and cultural histories.

As tourism in the region continues its long-term growth trend, the development of hotels as a primary tourism infrastructure should continue to evolve to accommodate the changes in the nature and pattern of demand. Given its relative proximity and ease of access, the U.S. has been a major source market for tourism—and thus hotel demand—in the Caribbean region.

The following table summarizes the segmentation of the total tourist visitation by four source market categories for the different Caribbean islands.

We note that the segmentations are based on the number of tourist arrivals for each of the islands through various year-to-date periods in 2008 and 2009 or through year-end 2008 and 2009, depending on the availability of the data.

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