MONTEGO BAY, St James — In the wake of increased visitor arrivals, which are on par with pre-COVID-19 figures for the month of March, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says a number of stakeholders who were negatively impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic are now beginning to rebound.

“We are seeing that the infrastructure that supports tourism is strengthened, we are also seeing that the linkages that enables the tourism experience will now be activated and much of the players and partners who have had to suffer over the long period of drought during the pandemic are now beginning to see a ray of hope,” Bartlett said following a tour of Sangster International Airport on Sunday.

Buoyed by strong stopover arrivals over the past two weekends, the best since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the tourism minister is projecting that this month alone some 200,000 stopover visitors will arrive in the destination.

“I am pleased to advise the country that our tourism industry is back on track. This weekend was a record weekend. Over 30,000 visitors came through the Sangster International Airport and Kingston (Norman Manley International) combined. We are expecting that the out-turn will be close to 35,000 for the weekend, starting on Thursday.

“This will bring us right back to 2019 level and we expect that this month of March will be the strongest month that we have seen since the pandemic,” the tourism minister said.

Bartlett added: “I am very proud of this performance this week against last week. Last week we had 27,000 at Sangster alone and over 30,000 again, inching further up to 35,000. And we are seeing that March is going to be well in excess of 200,000 visitors coming to Jamaica.”

From January 1 to March 7, some 359,763 visitors have been received at the island’s two international airports.

For the first seven days of March, 83,584 passengers were welcomed at the two airports.

Additionally, some 21,100 cruise passengers arrived on the island in January. Cruise arrival figures for February and March were not available.

Bartlett argued that with the improvement in arrival figures, the Government will now have to contemplate accelerating the planned expansion of infrastructural works at the airports.

“We are going to have to look at accelerating the expansion, particularly at the arrivals end to ensure that there are more immigration points of action and also that the distribution systems to enable a more seamless transfer of visitors,” the tourism minister said. “I am also looking at the infrastructure and the landscaping and how we are preparing and enabling the environment to reflect warmth and hospitality that is so typical of Jamaica.”

Transport Minister Audley Shaw announced last month that during the next few years, airports across the island are set to benefit from significant upgrades that will cost over US$200 million.