5 Must Know Seasons to Win in Caribbean Business
The Caribbean runs on a different calendar and if you plan to run a successful business here, you must know these movements. Let’s take a brief look at five seasons that move money across the Caribbean.
The Five Seasons:
Hurricane season
Carnival Season
Christmas season
Tourist season
High-tide season
1. Hurricane season
As I write, newly formed hurricane Erin is gaining strength and approaching the north eastern Caribbean. If it dips south during the next 24 hours, islands such as Anguilla, St. Maarten, and the British Virgin Islands will face severe weather. Officially, hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. This is when storms are most likely to form in the Atlantic Ocean and move toward the Caribbean, sometimes reaching the United States east coast. I’m not a meteorologist, so let’s talk about money.
Not to minimize the potential danger of hurricanes, but for the non-natives, Caribbean people are extremely resilient and trained in navigating these storms from birth. Where financing permits, building construction is done with heavy concrete, steel, blocks, and other methods to protect against strong wind and rain. Unfortunately, sometimes even this isn’t enough.
These reinforced construction methods, working on steep terrain, the need to drive expensive support piles in low-lying areas, importing building materials, and costly labour greatly increase the cost of Caribbean construction.
After construction comes insurance and maintenance costs. In 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and threatened the US east coast. With many uninsured or underinsured, the physical and financial damage still lingers through 2025. The response? With insurance and reinsurance companies under pressure for payouts, companies made blanket decisions to double or triple property insurance premiums across the region. This was done even on properties that were undamaged and that filed no claims.
Hurricanes often come with temporary electricity outages. This may be due to damaged infrastructure or simply out of caution as many utility companies still vulnerable cables above ground. Once winds hit approximately 30-40 miles per hour, they often shut off power for safety. This means you need to have a backup generator and fuel. These cost serious money.
If your business is travel, tourism, or hospitality related, consider how you plan to navigate the seasonal lull in client traffic when travel to the Caribbean is reduced, sometimes to avoid severe weather altering plans. Some island nations are pushing back against this trend by offering reduced rates and scheduling festivals during this period.
We can talk about how money is green all year round and how the Caribbean needs to diversify its marketing and offerings to erase this “slow-season” concept…but save that for another day!
2. Carnival/Festival Season
Let me increase your Caribbean IQ and save you a few tongue lashings from your favourite island-blooded coworker. Some places have carnivals which can be a general celebration of many things or even a manufactured commercial event. On a deeper level, several islands have festivals tied to remembrance of specific historic events.
You may notice, for example, that many emancipation festivals happen around late July through August. This is connected to the British emancipation proclamation that took place on August 1, 1834, beginning the end of slavery in British colonies. This date is significant, but it’s important to note that enslaved people were required to continue working for free as “apprentices” for an additional 4-6 years while slave owners figured out how to reconfigure their value chains to include labour costs after having that line item at zero on on the Profit & Loss statement for a few hundred years. Since enslaved people were considered property, I assume they were on the balance sheet with the other assets.
Yes, even in this conversation we’re still tracking the money!
For this reason, places like the British Virgin Islands hold an emancipation festival at the beginning of August. Countries such as Barbados have their Cropover festival linked to the traditional harvest time for sugar cane crops which were once a mainstay of the economy and culture.
Why does this matter for business?
Depending on your niche, carnivals or festivals can create high demand for products and services. Travel, accommodation, food service, building supplies, photography, videography, entertainment, and even trash disposal can see a bump if the business is prepared.
Businesses that rely heavily on staff should also prepare for possible absenteeism or decrease in productivity as workers struggle to balance responsibilities at home and the office, with late night parties and financial pressure from additional spending during this period.
The other side to this can be a decline in local affluent clientele who can afford to travel. It’s common for persons who can afford it to use the free holidays for family vacations abroad and skip the local festival.
The last consideration I’ll mention here is the labour cost of overtime and holiday pay. Is there money in the streets? Yes, but it will cost you more to collect it. People are in party mode so the business may need to hire temporary workers or pay existing staff overtime. Further, festival days are typically public holidays, so check local labour laws to see whether workers need to be paid double time and a half or some other increased tariff.
3. Christmas Season
For the theologians out there, please forgive the general use of Christmas “season” here as we really refer to the Advent weeks before Christmas, Christmas Day, and the 12 days of Christmas from after (not counting down to) Christmas Day up to Epiphany.
Even if you’re not religious, Christmas time is a big deal for Caribbean people. Friends, family, and even strangers may come to visit and we can’t allow anything around us to look like the struggles we’ve been facing all year. It’s time to “fix up da house”.
New curtains, fresh furniture, clean the windows, wash the mosquito screens, drinks in the cupboard for visitors, food constantly on the stove, something baking in the oven, hair done, and fancy outfits for all festive gatherings that may pop up over the next four to six weeks. All this on top of the usual spending on gifts means money is flowing to those who position their businesses appropriately.
Hospitality businesses can pick-up solid revenue from office “holiday parties” that are becoming increasingly extravagant.
The other side of this is the post-Christmas lull as people grapple with debt and reality in January. This is not unique to the Caribbean.
4. Tourist Season
When it’s cold up north, people come looking for heat.
Many Caribbean economies depend heavily on tourism. Sunseekers from North America, and increasingly Europe and Asia flock to the islands for the sun, sand, and sea vacation of their dreams.
Here’s a list of business that can benefit directly from this traffic:
Hotels and other accommodations
Travel advisors
Restaurants and other related hospitality ventures
Entertainment
Crafts and souvenirs
Sailing
Sport fishing and other water recreation
Transportation and tours
Fuel
…and the list can go on.
The key to thriving during the tourist season is putting in heavy work on marketing and booking during the off season. These trips can be major financial undertakings especially for families. While some book on short notice, others make arrangements up to one year in advance. Work with travel agents and wholesalers, direct B2C and B2B ads, attend conferences, and communicate with tourism boards.
Use the off season for repairs, product sourcing, staff vacations, marketing and other preparatory work.
Pro tip: Many Caribbean businesses get so focused on catering to foreign clients that they neglect the local clientele that is available and often willing to do business all year. How you choose to engage the local market will differ by business, but do not overlook this key customer base.
5. High-tide Season
This last one might sound like a stretch but hear me out. Successful Caribbean living means dancing with nature. Understand your partner’s moves and everyone looks more elegant.
For physical businesses located on the coast or beaches, the amount of shore space available varies throughout the year. Entire bars and countless beach chairs get swept up by rising tides during the day, in certain months. This affects seating capacity and ultimately revenue.
Be sure your engineers consider these tidal movements in the design and positioning of any structures. Give sufficient time for environmental impact assessments and approvals. There may also be periods where currents make it difficult to swim and winds make docking boats difficult. This is especially true for less experienced “credit card captains”.
Fancy science is great, but in true Caribbean fashion your best bet is sitting with elders in that community for them to tell you how the water behaves. In addition to historical knowledge of the area, their proverbial blessing can sway whether the community accepts your business, or whether someone will call the police every time you move a coconut.
What other Caribbean considerations should we add to this list?
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Dalan Vanterpool, for Tracking Money