1,500 New Tourism Jobs

Approximately 1,500 new jobs are to come on stream in the tourism industry with the opening of two new hotels in Western Jamaica.

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, made the disclosure as he opened the 2024/25 sectoral debate in the House of Representatives on April 30.

Mr. Bartlett said that the new positions will result from the completion of more than 2,000 new rooms this year.

“We will open… 750 rooms at RIU, Trelawny, and later in the month of May, we will open [Princess Grand Jamaica] in Green Island [Hanover], with 1,000 rooms, and that will provide a new wave of some 1,500 new jobs… for people,” he said.

Meanwhile, Minister Bartlett informed that 29 per cent of all the visitors who came to Jamaica stayed in an Airbnb.

“It is a new dynamic business model that is revolutionising the accommodation subsector and is generating income and resources to the ordinary people across the length and breadth of Jamaica,” he pointed out.

Data has indicated that last year, Airbnb generated an estimated $31.8 billion in gross earnings from 1.3 million guest nights.