Record arrivals collide with a deepening Caribbean staffing crunch

As the region shatters visitor records, hotels and restaurants cannot find enough workers to serve them.

The paradox of a full house

The Caribbean has never been busier, and it has never been shorter of the people who make the busyness work. International tourist arrivals reached 34.2 million in 2024, a 6.1% rise over 2023 and 6.9% above the pre-pandemic peak of 2019, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization. Cruise passenger visits climbed even faster, to 33.7 million, up 10.3%. The CTO expects overnight arrivals to touch 35 million in 2025. Behind those numbers sits an uncomfortable truth managers across the region now say openly: the guests are arriving faster than the workforce can grow.

A sector that carries the region

Travel and tourism is not a side business for the Caribbean; it is the payroll. The World Bank estimates the sector contributed 11.4% of regional GDP in 2023 and supported more than 2.75 million jobs, roughly 15.1% of all regional employment. In some economies the dependence is far heavier. In St. Lucia, 55% of workers aged 15 to 24 are employed in tourism. Women make up between 57 and 70% of the accommodation and food services workforce, well above the global average. When staffing tightens, it is these workers and their communities who feel it first.

Where the gaps are widest

Curacao offers a sharp illustration. Tourism there accounts for 48% of GDP and employs over 20,000 people, and the local hospitality association CHATA estimates the island needs 2,000 to 3,000 additional workers over the next two years as more than 1,000 new hotel and apartment units come online. Shortages are most acute among cooks, servers, bartenders, front office staff and housekeeping. The number of students and job seekers simply does not match the growth rate of our industry, CHATA chief executive Anuschka Cova said. Board chair Mimi Luttge argued for a dual approach: We must pursue a dual strategy, actively recruit local talent while also temporarily importing foreign workers.

Wages, quality and the retention problem

The strain is not only about headcount. World Bank analysis finds tourism jobs lag industry and other services on a composite measure of earnings, benefits, stability and working conditions, with high turnover and few long-term career pathways. Seasonality and exposure to external shocks make the work less stable, and women consistently record lower job quality than men in the sector. Hotel economics, meanwhile, are strong: regional occupancy averaged 66.6% in 2024 and the average daily rate reached US$437.02, up 4.2%. The question regional leaders increasingly ask is why buoyant room rates have not translated into stickier, better-paid careers.

A global squeeze, felt locally

The pressure is not unique to the Caribbean. The World Travel and Tourism Council projects a global hospitality workforce shortfall of 8.6 million by 2035, about 18% below required levels, and industry surveys rank talent recruitment and retention as the number one challenge at 52%. For the Caribbean, the WTTC sees the sector adding 1.34 million jobs over the coming decade. Filling them will require training pipelines, salary benchmarking and immigration policy moving in step. Despite geopolitical uncertainty and global economic challenges, our sector has shown remarkable resilience, CTO Secretary-General Dona Regis-Prosper said. Resilience, the region is learning, still runs on people.