The Caribbean is once again emerging as one of the most sought-after destinations for American travelers for winter getaways, with three destinations – Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and the Mexican Caribbean – benefiting from this increased demand, according to the latest data from Mabrian.
The Share of Searches Index tracked flight searches at the top 20 US airports (representing 85% of total air connectivity from the US) in the last month for travel between November 2024 and February 2025.
These include top-performing Caribbean destinations such as the Mexican Caribbean, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Bahamas.
The United States is a traditionally strong market for the Caribbean, especially in the winter season. According to the latest data available from the Caribbean Tourism Association (CTO), which includes aggregated data from all Caribbean destinations for 2023, the United States accounts for approximately 16.3 million arrivals, growing 12.7% year-on-year.
In particular, the United States is a key inbound tourism market for the Caribbean, which received approximately 32.2 million international travellers in 2023.
Demand for Costa Rica shows the largest year-over-year growth of 33% among all countries analyzed.
“The enthusiastic growth in demand for Costa Rica is highly uniform across all US airports analysed, proving that this is a destination that is at the top of the mind of American travellers during the winter season, which appears to be particularly positive and promising in terms of bookings and arrivals,” said Carlos Cendra, Mabrian’s director of marketing and communications.
Other Caribbean destinations showing a growing trend in inspiration demand are Puerto Rico (up 9% compared to the same period in 2023). The Mexican Caribbean (+6% for Cancun, Cozumel and Touloum airports) and the Dominican Republic (+4%, driven mainly by Santo Domingo’s Las Americas airport).
On the other hand, the destinations that are attracting the least interest among American travellers for winter holidays in the Caribbean this year are Jamaica (-17% fewer searches than last winter) and the Bahamas (-20%).
