Jamaica's tourism sector records 9.6% more earnings than last year: Reports

The tourism sector of Jamaica continues to achieve record performances during the just concluded fiscal year 2023-2024. According to the data, gross earnings are estimated to reach US$4.38 billion, which is an increase of 9.6% compared to last year.The update was shared by the Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, during a recent Parliamentary session.He added that the stop over arrivals during the last fiscal year are estimate at 2.96 million which reflects a 9.4% increase while the cruise arrivals are anticipated to reach 1.34 million, an increase of 9% from the last period in 2022-2023. The Minister further noted that last year, the principal airports in the country including the Kingston and Montego Bay also saw a huge growth as they collectively generated a revenue of US$200.28 million or J$30 billion. Minister Bartlett said that this revenue surge coincided with a record breaking 6.96 million passengers using these facilities and most of the earnings were from MBJ Airports Limited who operates the Sangster International Airport. During the address, the Minister also shared that the short term vacation rental in Jamaica in booming, with the Airbnb's earning nearly $32 billion in 2023. He said the numbers clearly show that they are contributing highly to the growth in the tourism industry. The data indicated that the guest check ins in Airbnb for January to December 2023 increased by 28% over 2022 which generated an estimated J$31.8 billion in gross earnings from a whopping 1.3 million guest nights. In addition to this, the Minister said that his team is expecting that developments in the local construction sector will contribute an additional stock to this subsector. The Minister has also urged young people "to become a part of the tourism machinery that is driving global development and economic growth."He outlined that our nation's youth are at the core of this innovation. Their involvement in the transformative process, guided by technology, is vital to understanding what their primary duty is."Your primary responsibility is not merely to accumulate the knowledge, useful as that is, your primary responsibility must be, in time, to use the knowledge that you have to add value to your process," Mr. Bartlett added.