Caribbean Market Research That Accounts for How the Region Actually Works

The Caribbean is not a single market. The Spanish-speaking Greater Antilles, the English-speaking CARICOM bloc, the French departments and Haiti, and the Dutch territories of the ABC islands and Sint Maarten each present distinct research requirements. SIS designs Caribbean research programs that account for these structural and linguistic differences at the methodology level.

Tourism-driven economies cannot be researched as conventional consumer markets. The Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Aruba host tourist populations that often exceed resident populations during peak seasons. Retail, food and beverage, and entertainment research must explicitly segment by visitor type, length of stay, and cruise versus stayover status. SIS instruments separate these populations rather than merging them into invalid composite samples.

Diaspora and remittance flows shape Caribbean consumer behavior in ways that mainland Latin American or North American research frameworks fail to capture. Remittances represent a meaningful share of disposable income in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Guyana. Consumer purchasing power, brand consideration, and channel preferences are calibrated to remittance-augmented household budgets, not just locally-earned income.

SIS has conducted primary research in the Caribbean for over four decades. Ruth Stanat built the firm’s regional practice during the post-independence economic diversification period and has maintained on-the-ground capability through CARICOM expansion, the cruise industry boom, the offshore financial services growth cycle, and the climate resilience research demand that now shapes regional planning.