Mr. Sebastian Acevedo Mejia, Lu Han, Miss Marie S Kim, and Ms. Nicole Laframboise
This paper studies the role of airlift supply on the tourism sector in the Caribbean. The
paper examines the relative importance of U.S.-Caribbean airlift supply factors such as the
number of flights, seats, airlines, and departure cities on U.S. tourist arrivals. The possible
endogeneity problem between airlift supply and tourist arrivals is addressed by using a
structural panel VAR and individual country VARs. Among the four airlift supply
measures, increasing the number of flights is found to be the most effective way to boost
tourist arrivals on a sustained basis. As a case study, the possible crowding effect of
increasing the number of U.S. flights to Cuba is investigated and, based on past
observations, we find no significant impact on flights to other Caribbean countries. The
impact of natural disasters on airlift supply and tourist arrivals is also quantified.