Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says cruise shipping remains an important value-added complement to stopover arrivals and will also be a crucial component to Jamaica’s tourism recovery efforts. Two cruise ships will call on Ocho Rios this week, bringing to five the number of vessels to have called on the resort town since the phased reopening of the sector...

Assistant Vice-President for Marketing and Communications at the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), Kimberly Stiff, says while there are “still things to be worked out”, many locals have been benefiting from the return of cruise ships. In an interview with JIS News, Ms. Stiff said the trickle-down benefits have been such where stakeholders, including craft traders, shop owners and transport...

The Carnival Sunrise cruise ship is scheduled to arrive in Ocho Rios on Monday, September 13, 2021 with approximately 1,700 cruise passengers onboard. Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett, outlined that “this will be the third cruise ship arrival following the reopening of cruise tourism in August 2021.  The schedule for the cruise season had been agreed on with Carnival...

Entities within the tourism sector are constantly being monitored by the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) to ensure compliance with the COVID-19 Health and Safety Protocols that have been implemented for the reopening of the sector. “Generally, we go in unannounced and in a casual fashion, just to discreetly inspect to ensure that the protocols are in place,” said Acting...

President of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), Clifton Reader, says that the vaccination of tourism workers is essential in safeguarding the industry. "That is why we are driving this process as hard as we can to make sure that we help the people and we keep them healthy because if we don’t have them, we don’t have a...

Well over 2,000 tourism workers have been vaccinated using one of three vaccines made available to them at a number of strategic blitz sites organized by the new Tourism Vaccination Task Force, in its first three days of major activities. The Task Force, which was established to facilitate the vaccination of all tourism workers island-wide, has organized a series of...

More than 500 tourism workers on Friday (September 3) participated in the Tourism Vaccination Task Force’s COVID-19 Vaccination Blitz held at Moon Palace in Ocho Rios, St. Ann. The initiative is the brainchild of the Ministry of Tourism in partnership with the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) that are looking to expedite...