By the Caribbean Journal staff

Music superstars Pitbull and Mariah Carey have signed on to the lineup for the upcoming Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival.

The pair of luminaries will join a lineup that includes Maroon 5, Ozuna, Gladys Knight and Third World, among others.

The festival opens Aug. 29, running through Aug. 31.

Mariah Carey.

Pitbull will open on the Sam Cooke stage on Aug. 30, while Carey will perform on Saturday, Aug. 31.

The annual event is held at the site of the World Trade Center Piscadera near Curacao’s capital, Willemstad.

For more, visit the Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival.

— CJ

The post Why Pitbull and Mariah Carey Are Coming to Curacao appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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By Dana Niland
CJ Contributor

New hotels, new eateries, new flights — and record-breaking growth.

Cayman Islands tourism is surging right now, according to the latest numbers from the destination’s Department of Tourism.

Indeed, the Cayman Islands reported 145,804 stayover visitor arrivals in the first quarter of 2019, a sizable 8.67 percent jump over the same period in 2018 and a new record for the first three months of the year.

Locale is the newest hotel in Grand Cayman, set in the heart of the Seven Mile Beach corridor.

That comes as the destination welcomed 59,563 stayover visitors in March, which was itself an 8.37 percent jump over March 2018 — and the best month for stayover visitors in Cayman’s history.

“The Cayman Islands should be proud of its record-breaking stayover performance in the first quarter of 2019,” said Cayman Islands Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism, Moses Kirkconnell. “As a Ministry and Department of Tourism, we are committed to developing innovative and authentic strategies for attracting travelers from key source markets. The recent launch of the USA focused Dream in Cayman campaign pushes the boundaries of destination advertising and I look forward to evaluating the results of the campaign in the months to come.”

Seven Mile Beach.

The growth comes as Cayman continues to position itself as one of the hottest tourism markets in the wider Caribbean, including a hotel sector that has an impressive pipeline of new developments from Mandarin Oriental’s second Caribbean hotel to a just-announced Hilton project.

That’s along with strong growth in new airlift, from Cayman Airways’ new route from Denver, Colo. to Grand Cayman to new flights like Southwest Airlines’ Baltimore/Washington-Cayman route.

The new terminal in Grand Cayman.

All of those flights are now arriving at Cayman’s brand-new international airport, which made its debut last month with a high-profile visit from Prince Charles.

— CJ

The post The Cayman Islands Is Seeing Record-Breaking Tourism Growth appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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By the Caribbean Journal staff

St Maarten and home sharing giant Airbnb have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at promoting tourism to the island, the two sides announced on Monday.

The MOU establishes a “framework of mutual collaboration and cooperation on areas of common interest, including marketing promotion and good faith engagement,” the two sides said.

“As a government, we are pleased to work with Airbnb to take advantage of the opportunity to create a realistic and balanced approach to improving the destination’s room inventory,” said St Maarten Tourism Minister Stuart Johnson. “Signing the MOU with Airbnb also puts the government on the path to generating increased revenue from our tourism product. It also allows us to further explore and capitalize on the benefits of destination marketing from a major platform such as Airbnb.”

St Maarten saw more than 6,200 Airbnb guest arrivals in 2018, according to company data.

The agreement is the 17th of its kind that Airbnb has signed with a Caribbean destination.

“St. Maarten is an important and growing destination for Airbnb. Today’s announcement brings new opportunities to generate sustainable growth of the local tourism industry through our collaborative efforts. Our people-to-people platform aligns with St. Maarten’s reputation as the friendly island, economically empowering locals while they showcase all that makes St. Maarten unforgettable.” said Carlos Munoz, Airbnb Campaign Manager for Public Policy and Communications in the Caribbean and Central America.

— CJ

The post St Maarten, Airbnb Sign Memorandum of Understanding appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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