MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — With only six days into the winter tourist season, the Tourism Ministry says Jamaica is already seeing impressive numbers in terms of visitor arrivals, which compare favourably with the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) era.

According to a release, over the last three days, some 25,000 passengers made their way through the Sangster International Airport (SIA) in Montego Bay. Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett said the sector has not seen these arrival numbers since 2019.

“It’s absolutely phenomenal…especially during a pandemic,” he said. “Since Friday, December 17, we have had over 159 flights into Montego Bay alone, putting stopover arrivals into the tourism capital at about 25,000 in three days. Saturday’s 9,153 arrivals from 62 flights is the biggest single-day record we have had since the airports were reopened on June 15, last year,” he pointed out.

Bartlett also reported that Sunday’s arrivals were equally impressive with “some 52 flights on record” sharing that “these numbers would be the type of figures we would see in the strongest weekends…even in pre-COVID times.”

“We have not even factored in the cruise numbers, which have also been growing by leaps and bounds,” the Minister added.

Barring any fallout from the new strain of the coronavirus (COVID-19), Omicron, the Tourism Minister said there is every reason to believe that the numbers will continue to grow.

He commended the work being carried out by all relevant Government agencies and travel partners, citing Customs, Immigration, Red Cap porters, the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), Jamaica Vacations (JamVac), Ministry of Health and Wellness, the Resilient Corridors Committee, and the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo).

Minister Bartlett said that in meeting with international partners in some of Jamaica’s main source markets, interest in the island remains very high, adding that “we continue to be a first-rate and a first-choice destination with a lot of attributes to entice.”

“Whether it’s the United States, Canada or Great Britain, there’s a lot of interest in Jamaica and its people. Our partners have also been impressed by how we have managed our health and safety protocols. We have also managed to make a lot of inroads in other areas…some as fertile as the Middle East, the Eastern bloc in Europe and even parts of Asia. We have spent our time wisely and now we are seeing the results,” he further noted.

Meanwhile, Chief Strategist/Senior Adviser in the Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright, said that Jamaica’s cruise numbers will see an exponential increase in early 2022 when the western Caribbean route is fully opened.

“We share the same itinerary route with Grand Cayman, which is still closed,” he noted. “Cruise shipping should be resuming in Cayman in early February and that’s when we should be seeing the huge Royal Caribbean Oasis-styled vessels coming our way.”