Jamaica Projected to Welcome 4.2 Million Visitors and Generate US$4.1B in Tourism Earnings for 2023/24

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says Jamaica is expected to welcome 4.2 million visitors and earn US$4.1 billion by the end of the 2023/24 fiscal year.

He made the disclosure during Tuesday’s (March 5) meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, whose members are reviewing the 2024/25 Estimates of Expenditure.

“For 2024/25, it is intended to increase that (arrivals and earnings) to 4.529 million visitors and US$4.8 billion in earnings. Just to indicate that we would be just about $200 million shy of the US$5 billion in earnings, which will be realised in the 2025/26 fiscal year to satisfy that projection that we have made,” Mr. Bartlett said.

The Minister was referring to the 5x5x5 growth strategy of five million visitors and earnings of US$5 billion by 2025.

Regarding cruise tourism, Mr. Bartlett informed that the sector has rebounded, “and we are just really back to 2019 levels in terms of our projection for 2024/25 at 1.3 million [arrivals]”.

“Of course, we are projecting to break the three-million barrier for stopover arrivals for the first time in the history of Jamaica. The importance of achieving three million is significant in that, at that point, the ratio of visitors to locals will be one-on-one and the flow-through effect in the economy is now going to be realised in a really meaningful way… because that type of earning drives a level of demand, and the demand is being supplied through the activities of our local persons,” he indicated.

“Yes, we do have an external factor in terms of items that we do not produce in Jamaica that we would have to import. But there is a growing energy on the supply side, and the budget in its detail will speak to programmes and strategies that we will be employing to build out on the supply side to strengthen the supply side,” the Minister added.

Mr. Bartlett noted that part of that policy arrangement is to establish a supplies logistics centre in the special economic zone, which is already in train.

He further informed that a team, led by Wilfred Baghaloo, has been established and includes several of the top suppliers of tourism goods and services in Jamaica.

“They are now working through the details of making the appropriate proposal to the Minister of Finance with regards to that activity. The importance of that is to also create a different type of skillsets within the tourism space because, now…, tourism workers are going to be trained within that space because the supplies are not just about goods but services,” Mr. Bartlett stated.

“So, we are going to be training personnel for procurement and other areas of tourism activity that now can be exported to other regions within the tourism space. So, Jamaica will be the Centre for it,” he added.

Further to that, UN Tourism is partnering with Jamaica to establish a regional tourism academy.

“Tourism of the future, of course, is going to be heavily driven by artificial intelligence, and [digitalisation] as well as virtualisation are going to be big parts of what the tourism experience of the future is going to be. So, our workers are going to have to be retrained and be prepared to respond to those new demands for the industry,” Mr. Bartlett underscored.