FALMOUTH, Trelawny — Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett says that he is, in part, banking on annual cruise ship arrivals at the historic Falmouth pier to jump to 1.5 million to bolster his plan to reach five million visitors to the island yearly by 2021.

He noted that data reveal that cruise ship arrivals at Falmouth “are closing in now on a million passengers annually”.

“And you are all aware of projections for growth; that we want to have five million visitors to Jamaica by 2021 and we want to earn US$5million; we want to employ at least 120,000 people directly in the tourism sector,” the tourism minister noted.

“The role that Falmouth has to play in that regard is well defined; so we want to see Falmouth to 1.5 million over that period of time, because it has the capacity so to do.”

Noting that “Falmouth is today the largest cruise port in the Caribbean and arguably Latin America”, Bartlett underscored the potential for more vessels to stop at the Trelawny capital.

He said in a bid to increase vessels calling on the port to four days weekly up from the current “two-to-three days”, “we are working together to drive the marketing and to bring more visitors in”.

Bartlett revealed that come September he will head a delegation to China in an effort to woo cruise passengers from that Asian country.

“And in September we are going to China and we are going to be talking about the possibilities of having Chinese cruise emanating from our area and going into the rest of the Caribbean in the normal way that cruises do now,” said the tourism minister.