Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, has said that tourism earnings for this year could eclipse 2008 figures, despite the global economic recession.

Last year, Jamaica earned approximately US$1.6 billion from tourism and Bartlett is predicting that revenue for this year could total $2 billion.

“Our earnings were trending down earlier this year, largely due to the need to discount, given the worldwide economic downturn, but we have now caught up and we can expect by year-end that we might even show a small growth over last year in our earnings,” he stated.

Bartlett was speaking at the opening of a Tourism Awareness Week exhibition on Monday.

Visitor arrivals, he said, is also expected to increase, with the numbers already surpassing last year’s by four per cent, and is expected to reach five per cent by year-end.

Tourism Awareness Week is being observed from December 6 to 12, with this year’s activities focused on the significance of tourism and why it should matter to all Jamaicans.

Bartlett told Tourism Action Club members from several schools in the Corporate Area, who attended the exhibition opening that they are the future of the industry and he proposed the introduction of tourism as a stand-alone subject at the secondary school level.

“We have to sensitise our young people at the earliest time possible about how an appreciation of tourism fits in with the civics studies that they are exposed to in school,” he said.

The theme of the exhibition is ‘Tourism: Providing Opportunities for all Jamaicans’ and features displays dealing with the various aspects of tourism and the related job opportunities. There is also an audiovisual presentation as part of the display.