Stakeholders are noticing an increase in people coming to the area for marijuana tourism as the tourism industry begins to recover.
Travel or tourism that involves or incorporates marijuana use is referred to as marijuana tourism.
Farm tours, “bud and breakfast” hotels, city tours, marijuana festivals, marijuana trails, food, wine, and marijuana pairings, “ganja yoga,” and packages that combine lodging and marijuana experiences are a few examples of marijuana tourism.
These travel adventures might also be classified as wellness tourism pursuits.
The travel trend builds on the momentum that began before to the emergence of the new coronavirus epidemic, when several countries in the region relaxed their prohibitions on marijuana use, especially for medical purposes.
Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines recently allowed the growing of medical marijuana. However, laws to decriminalize the use of small amounts of marijuana has already been accepted or passed in nations like Jamaica, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, and the US Virgin Islands before that.
Many travelers who were seeking a different kind of travel experience were reenergized by our action.
But despite the efforts made by individual governments to relax the restrictions on marijuana use, the local populace is still very skeptical.
Hugh Riley, secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), said at a state of the industry conference conducted in the US Virgin Islands: “We can’t pretend it doesn’t exist and the rest of the world isn’t talking about it. It is totally up to places within and outside of the Caribbean to decide if they want to utilize marijuana as a magnet to pull tourists, he continued, adding that at the end of the day we have to make decisions that are in the best interest of the people of the Caribbean. It is a factor, so we need to talk about it and will continue to research it.
However, Floyd Green, a former agricultural minister in Jamaica, said, “The fact that Jamaica is already a world-renowned hospitality and tourism destination is a certain formula for a thriving cannabis economy,” in a speech at the opening of a dispensary.
A trade and investment membership organization called the Caribbean Council noted in a document that “the issue of ganja tourism, whether for medicinal purposes or personal enjoyment, will remain controversial as its use raises many other questions that the authorities in the region’s tourism feeder markets also have to take into consideration. These range from unintentional possession by a repeat visitor to the perplexing message that production is still prohibited due to its connections to significant organized crime networks and its usage to finance criminal or terrorist acts, yet consuming is fine.
Nearly 33% of American travelers who are 21 years of age or older wished to visit a marijuana dispensary while traveling, according to research done by the travel agency Kayak.
In a similar vein, close to 25% of respondents aged 21 to 34 reported that they had already traveled to a location where marijuana was legal or decriminalized.
A recent Forbes report stated that the worldwide marijuana tourism market is estimated to be worth US$17 billion.
According to the World Wellness Institute, wellness tourists spend about 50% more than the normal international traveler and 178% more than the typical domestic traveler, according to a recent article in Tourism Reviews News. The market is anticipated to grow to over US$ 919 billion by the end of 2022. This accounts for 18% of the worldwide travel industry.
