SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Puerto Rican press and social media have been active this week with the news that Lin-Manuel Miranda has become the most recent winner of the prestigious Pulitzer prize in the drama genre with his musical Hamilton, which he composed and wrote.
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Above: the Playa Grande Beach Club
Caribbean hotels are off to a very slow start so far in 2016, according to new data from hotel analytics firm STR.
The region’s hotels reported occupancy of 74 percent in March, down 4.5 percent compared to March 2015.
It was the largest single-month decline in the Caribbean since April 2013.
That followed a similarly sluggish showing in February, when Caribbean hotel occupancy fell by 3.9 percent year over year to 75.6 percent.
For the year, hotel occupancy in the Caribbean stood at 73.1 percent through March, down 3.3 percent from the first quarter of 2015.
While average daily rates rose by 1.8 percent to $293.51 percent last month, the region’s hotels saw a 2.8 percent decline in revenue per available room to $217.32.
STR’s data surveyed 1,940 hotels comprising 236,806 rooms in the Caribbean.
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By the Caribbean Journal staff
The Dominican Republic has high hopes for 2016.
The country is projecting a total of 6 million total stayover visitors this year, according to the country’s Ministry of Tourism.
That projection comes after the country easily led the entire Caribbean in total visitor numbers last year, with just under 5.6 million.
The Dominican Republic already saw a growth rate of 8 percent in the first quarter of 2016.
The country has a stated goal of reaching 10 million annual tourist arrivals by 2023, an ambition first revealed in 2013.
the numbers were revealed on the heels of the DATE tourism conference in Punta Cana last week.
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Carnival Cruise Line is expanding its cruise calls to Cozumel, the company announced.
The company has extended the length of time its ships spend in Cozumel on more than 750 voyages.
On the new “Cozumel Plus”itineraries, guests can try a host of new excursions, from swimming with whale sharks to exploring hidden caverns.
The Cozumel Plus itineraries are operated by 17 different Carnival ships.
The new tours are up to eight hours in duration, including everything from visits to ancient Mayan ruins to snorkeling the lagoons of Xel-Ha.
“With magnificent beaches and interesting landmarks and historical sites, Cozumel is the Caribbean’s premier cruising region and our ‘Cozumel Plus’ itineraries provide our guests with a seemingly endless variety of new ways to explore this fascinating destination,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “These new itineraries provide our guests with the opportunity to create wonderful vacation memories and our travel agent partners an exciting cruise option to market to their clients.”
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