1,50,000 tourist expected to visit Jamaica in June

Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said that a Total of 1,50,000 tourist are estimated to arrive in the Jamaica. This shows the development of Jamaica’s tourism industry.

Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said that so far, for the month of June, in seven days, they had 37,000 visitors. That meant they were running at just over 5,000 per day.

The projected arrival number of visitors for June will continue the growth trend for the tourism sector since the start of the year.

In January, Jamaica experienced the arrival of 40,000 tourists, and more than 40,000 tourists arrived in February, with the estimated increase in to 69,000 during March and will be increasing to 102,000 till April.

In May, 135,000 tourists came for the tour to the country’s shores.
Minister Bartlett said that increase in visitor arrivals had triggered more significant opportunities for goods and services locally while engaging more workers.

Due to the increasing number of visitors, the government of the island noted that 80 per cent of tourism workers have returned to their jobs.

Due to the drastic effects of the increased spread of COVID-19. Minister Bartlett informed the citizens that the industry had lost its 130,000 directly employed workers last year as the harmful impact of COVID-19 hit the country.

“After March 20 [2020], we had zero arrivals, zero earnings, and the 170,000 workers directly employed became 40,000,” he pointed out.

The Minister noted that tourism remained one of the most drivers for the recovery of Jamaica’s economy and welcomed the return of the workers to the industry.

A total of 209,163 cruise passengers visited Jamaica in January 2020. This represented a 16.0% decrease over the 249,026 who visited in January 2019. The typical length of stay of Non- Resident Jamaican arrivals in January 2020 was 17.0 nights compared to 18.5 in January 2019.