Jamaica to welcome 4.2 million visitors by 2024

Jamaica: The Tourism Minister of Jamaica - Edmund Bartlett, has predicted that the island country would welcome 4.2 million visitors and generate around US$4 billion in earnings by the year 2024, after recovering from the COVID-19 impact.

The Tourism Minister noted that these predictions had been made on the growth trends since Jamaica had opened its borders in June 2020, which were closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As per Minister Bartlett, the arrival rate of travellers is increased by an average rate of 20% every month.

"Jamaica has welcomed more than 837,000 stopover visitors over the ensuing 12-month period, and 189,001 stopover visitors are projected for July 2021, with 1.7 million tourists expected between January and December," the Tourism Minister noted.

Following the statement, Minister Bartlett informed that around 3.2 million tourists are projected to arrive in Jamaica, to which the estimated earning is US$2.7 billion in the year 2022. He added that "with this, Jamaica would be on its way to recovery in 2023 with assumpted arrival of 3.7 million visitors and inflows of US$3.7 billion."

The Tourism Minister cited that the novel coronavirus pandemic has made them re-think their strategies in the tourism sector. With this, the Minister further indicated that the Ministry's Blue Ocean Strategy is also guiding the tourism sector of Jamaica in the recreation for its business models.

"The Blue Ocean Strategy would assist the Jamaican government in meeting our growth targets of five billion dollars in earnings and five thousand new rooms by 2025," Jamaica's Tourism Minister noted.

Minister Bartlett was speaking while addressing the meeting with representatives of the Caribbean Alternative Investment Association - CARAIA at the AC Kingston Marriott Hotel, which was held on Thursday, July 29, 2021.

Noting the above statement, the Tourism Minister noted that this all would require training and building the capacity of industry personnel, leveraging local culture and heritage to tell the authentic Jamaican story, renewed focus on destination assurance, making music a more effective & inclusive part of the visitor experience and by creating programmes such programmes that the visitors must get out of their hotels to live the beauty of the Caribbean island.