Several destinations seeing strong growth in longer stays

Durrant Pate/Contributor

Vacations booking company, Airbnb is reporting strong demand for long-term stays in the Caribbean.

Airbnb, which is an American company that operates an online marketplace for lodging, primarily homestays for vacation rentals and tourism activities says demand continues to grow for longer stays based on recent data it has gathered. The data revealed that bookings for long-term stays by travelers in the Caribbean almost doubled between 2019 and 2021. 

Several destinations are seeing particularly strong growth in that regard in several islands such as Jamaica. In fact, reservations for stays of 28 days or more in the British Virgin Islands have more than doubled, as have similar stays in Guyana. 

St Maarten and Antigua and Barbuda have doubled their bookings for longer stays, while Dominica has also seen a doubling of long-stay bookings. Airbnb has been pushing a remote work programme in the Caribbean called ‘Work from the Caribbean’, which is one of the factors being credited for this surge in demand for longer term stays in the region.

Promoting Airbnb in the Caribbean

Airbnb reports that most remote workers have been coming from the United States, Canada, France and the United Kingdom.

Carlos Muñoz, Airbnb policy manager for Central America and the Caribbean, says the organisation is proud to have partnered again with the Caribbean Tourism Organization in promoting a variety of  destinations in the Caribbean so people can work and travel within.

Muñoz was quoted by Caribbeanjournal.com as saying that “the rise of digital nomads and the development of long-stay programs across the region continue to help in the recovery of tourism and in creating this campaign we hope to inspire travelers to stay in this wonderful region for a longer period of time”.

According to Faye Gill, the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s director for membership services, “the latest data released by Airbnb validates the hard work that destinations in the region have done to promote their countries as first class options for digital nomads. Countries quickly identified the niche and built the products, and services, to support growth in the most challenging of circumstances”.

Thanks to Airbnb, the Caribbean Tourism Organization said it was pleased to be able to provide a platform for its members across the Caribbean to build on the success that they have been able to achieve.