A new study by the U.S. based travel insurance company Squaremouth shows that the Turks and Caicos Islands are now the fifth most popular destination for American tourists. This puts TCI ahead of the ever popular Bahamas for the first time in the history of the data aggregation.
The Turks and Caicos Islands were reported as being the fastest growing destinations. The country saw a 303% boost in the data compared with a year ago taking the Islands from 60th position in 2019 to 5th in the latest study. Only the U.S itself, Mexico , Canada and the U.K received high numbers of visitors**. The change has been fueled in part by the closure of borders to travelers in many of the popular European destinations and the reluctance of travelers to go too far in the current pandemic. The short flight times from the US mainland ( around 90 minutes from Miami) make it a favorable choice.
Other contributing factors are that the popularity of the beautiful waters and beaches of the islands are becoming more widely known. This can be attributed to the hard work and marketing done by the Turks and Caicos Tourism Board and the TCI Hotel and Tourism Association as well as the arrival of well known tourism brands in the form of the Ritz Carlton and Andaz Hyatt developments currently under way in Providenciales. The Andaz project due to start construction in 2021 is just a few hundred yards away from Gracehaven Villa in the Bight Settlement, Providenciales and will bring additional value to the area with new restaurants and bars.
The Islands also remain one of the most beautiful and safe places to visit in the Caribbean region. The impact of the current pandemic, whilst still painful for the residential populace, has been well-managed by the early introduction of shutdowns, strong travel requirements and local restrictions.
**Data collected by Squaremouth March-October 2020