Tourism On Path To Full Recovery

Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says that Jamaica’s tourism is on a trajectory for full recovery by 2023.

In an interview with JIS News, following his presentation at the World Free Zone Organization (WFZO) Annual International Conference and Exhibition (AICE) in Montego Bay on June 15, Mr. Bartlett said that “if this record summer” is anything to go by, Jamaica should be seeing pre-coronavirus (COVID) numbers by early next year.

“Few would have foreseen this recovery two years ago when the pandemic was all the rage,” he noted.

“This, however, did not happen by chance but is based on the incredible work by the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) and all other relevant agencies from the Ministry of Tourism during the worst pandemic known to man, and at a time when tourism worldwide had been decimated,” he said.

Minister Bartlett recalled that once the pandemic came in full force in 2020 and forced the lockdown of all local airports and seaports, a decision was taken by the Government to put a recovery plan in place “where we would be ready to hit the road running once we had the COVID mystery figured out”.

He credited the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) as well as the Ministry of Health and Wellness for their proactiveness in putting together health and safety measures for all tourism-related entities, including the hotels and attractions.

He also noted the effectiveness of the resilient corridors in keeping the COVID-19 positivity rate to under two per cent, adding that Jamaica was rated by several reputable international health agencies as among the countries that had a top-flight resilience programme in place.

“Once the greenlight was given for the airports and seaports to be reopened we were more than ready,” the Minister pointed out.

Mr. Bartlett, in the meantime said that preliminary data from the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) showed that stopover arrivals from January to March increased by 230.1 per cent to 475,805 visitors over the same period last year, while cruise passenger arrivals totalled 99,798.

“At the end of May, we surpassed the one million-visitor mark for this year, and we are well on our way to achieving our 2022 projections for total visitor arrivals of 3.2 million and total revenue of US$3.3 billion,” the Tourism Minister added.

Minister Bartlett said that Jamaica is about to make “serious inroads” into the Middle Eastern market, noting that Emirates Airlines, the largest airline in the Gulf Coast Countries (GCC), is selling seats to Jamaica.

“This arrangement opens gateways from the Middle East, Asia and Africa to our island and the rest of the region,” he indicated.