Another 1,600 new rooms are to be added to the country’s stock over the next 18 months, as the Government works to shore up room availability in anticipation of increased demand for accommodation. Making the disclosure during his Sectoral presentation in Parliament on  April 14, Minister of Tourism and Entertainment, Hon. Dr. Wykeham McNeill, said this need for more rooms...

Another 1,600 new rooms are to be added to the country’s stock over the next 18 months, as the Government works to shore up room availability in anticipation of increased demand for accommodation. Making the disclosure during his Sectoral presentation in Parliament today (April 14), Minister of Tourism and Entertainment, Hon. Dr. Wykeham McNeill, said this need for more rooms has...

Jamaica continues to record increased stopover and cruise ship visitor arrivals, a trend which has carried over from 2014. Tourism and Entertainment Minister, Hon. Dr. Wykeham McNeill, says preliminary figures for January to April 7 show a 6.4 per cent increase over 2014. This, he notes, equates to an additional 35,000 visitors for the period which, along with December 2014,...

A total of 11 rest stop locations across the island are now in operation, under the Government’s $70 million programme. This follows last month’s (March) completion of Phase 1 of the Rest Stop Programme undertaken along the North and South Coast corridors. Minister of Tourism and Entertainment, Hon. Dr. Wykeham McNeill, made the disclosure while making his presentation in the...

Director of Tourism, Paul Pennicook, is forecasting continued growth for the sector with projections of three per cent and 10 per cent increase in visitor arrivals for 2015 and 2016, respectively. “This would mean an additional 210,000 arrivals in 2016 over 2015 and Jamaica would need an additional 3,300 units to our room inventory by 2016…clearly indicating that the time...

The Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) has allocated a sum of $3.3 billion to rehabilitate and upgrade the resort towns of Negril, Montego Bay, Falmouth and Ocho Rios. Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. the Hon. Peter Phillips, who made the announcement while opening the 2015/16 Budget Debate in the House on March 12, said $300 million of the sum will...

The Government is collaborating with the private sector to capitalise on the increasing popularity of sports tourism to boost earnings in the sector. Chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), Dennis Morrison, said that sports tourism is a multi-billion dollar business, and is one of the fastest growing areas of the global travel and tourism industry. “The Jamaica Tourist Board,...