Johanna Jainchill
As the industry marks the one-year anniversaries of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, many travel agents say their clients are excited to return to the Caribbean.
I reached out to several agents to ask about Caribbean bookings and client perceptions about the region's viability.
Overall, the agents said that Caribbean bookings are not down, in part because they are helping to educate their clients about the reality in the Caribbean: that only eight of the its 33 island nations and territories were significantly impacted during the 2017 hurricane season, and only six are still in varying states of recovery.
"A lot of people inquire about a particular island, then ask if it was hit by the hurricane," said Pam MacIntyre of Travel Leaders in Maple Grove, Minn. "I do not feel that most people know outright which islands were affected." She added, "We continue to educate our clients on the areas that we ourselves travel to and are comfortable visiting."
MacIntyre added that she is seeing additional Caribbean volume due to travelers who are avoiding Mexico, (another destination she tries to educate clients about in terms of perception versus reality).
Aside from the destinations hit the hardest and where many properties are still closed, like the British Virgin Islands and U.S. Virgin Islands, ProTravel International travel adviser Ansley Bentley said that people are "open to anywhere in the Caribbean and feel perfectly safe."
"I book a lot of Caribbean, and people are not nervous or hesitant at all traveling there," she said. "I haven't seen any decline for travel to the Caribbean."
Popular this year, she said, are islands like St. Lucia, Turks & Caicos and St. Kitts, and also Anguilla, one of the islands that was hit hard by Irma. Bentley said there is particular excitement and anticipation about the Cap Juluca reopening under the Belmond brand in November.
Lisa Brasgalla of Travel Leaders in Fargo, North Dakota, also said that the Caribbean is still one of most popular destinations among her clients, and that knowledge about the condition of the islands varies.
"Avid travelers are typically up to date on the current status of the Caribbean islands," she said. "Those less traveled clients don't really seem to be as informed. There are still those that think the majority of the Caribbean was affected and not open for travel."
Brasgalla said it is the agent's job to educate clients about any vacation destination, including the Caribbean, (a view that was shared at the Virtuoso Travel Week conference last month).
"We have firsthand experience and knowledge about the typical ins and outs of most destinations," she said. "That's one of the main reasons I feel that people use a travel agent -- because they know I'm not going to send someone to a place I wouldn't go myself. Within our agency we have hundreds of years of experience in travel, and that is the one thing people aren't going to receive by booking online."
Gay Nagle Myers, Travel Weekly's contributing editor for the Caribbean, is on leave.