Rum is becoming a bigger driver of tourism, manufacturing and branding across Latin America and the Caribbean, as producing countries look to capture more value from an industry historically built on exporting raw sugarcane byproducts, according to an analysis published by Latinoamérica21.
Rum exports remain significant for several economies. The United States imported around $161mn worth of rum and tafia in 2025, led by the Dominican Republic at $23.1mn, Barbados at $19mn, Jamaica at $18.1mn and Venezuela at $16.6mn. Spain imported €42.5mn worth of Dominican rum that year, alongside €29mn in Cuban rum and €8.38mn in Venezuelan rum, according to the analysis.
A shift toward premium and sipping rums
Global rum consumption is projected to remain broadly stagnant between 2024 and 2029, according to industry analysis firm IWSR, even as the super-premium segment shows stronger growth in markets including the United States and the United Kingdom. Rum is increasingly positioned as a spirit to be sipped and collected rather than only mixed into cocktails, a shift reflected in specialist bars such as Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco, which had built a list of around 1,300 rum expressions by 2025.
Individual countries have taken different approaches to capturing that value. Guatemala has secured a protected designation of origin tied to virgin cane honey, high-altitude aging and the solera system, while Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have leaned on industrial scale and established brands.
Distilleries and festivals as tourism draws
Distillery visitor centres combining production tours, tastings and retail have become tourist attractions in their own right across the Caribbean, while dedicated events are expanding the sector’s reach. Puerto Rico’s 2026 edition of the Taste of Rum festival drew close to 1,800 attendees and featured more than 150 rum expressions.
In 2021, Jamaica’s tourism minister proposed a multi-destination rum tourism route linking the heritage of Cuba, Barbados and Jamaica, an idea the analysis suggests could extend to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
Cuba illustrates the risks facing the sector. The island’s 2024-2025 sugar harvest was estimated at around 165,000 tonnes, the lowest level in more than a century, threatening its rum industry given rules requiring producers to use domestic molasses.
The analysis noted that while producing countries publish export and visitor arrival figures, few currently measure how many travellers are motivated specifically by distilleries, festivals or rum routes, or how much economic activity that segment generates.