KINGSTON, Jamaica- Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has announced that stopover arrivals to Jamaica last month climbed to 224,000, surpassing the 222,000 recorded in June 2019.

“These additional stopover arrivals are very critical as it is continuing the trend of making this the biggest summer and that Jamaica will in fact recover this summer significantly over the 2019 levels.

We completed one million visitors in June, and we expect to have the second millionth visitor in October. These figures and the trends so far are a clear indication that we will meet our targets and even surpass them,” Bartlett is quoted as saying in a release from the Ministry of Tourism.

For 2022, Jamaica is projecting approximately 2.5 million visitor arrivals with a total visitor spend of about US$3 billion.

“Our earnings have equally been apace, and we have seen increased average daily rates which is indicative of higher foreign exchange earnings for Jamaica. This is against the background of tourism leading the recovery of the economy in the last four quarters having had triple digit growth. The last quarter that ended in March indicated a 107 per cent increase in tourism growth and this coming quarter that ended in June will see a significant increase in growth as well,” said Bartlett.

“Congratulations to the Jamaica Tourist Board and all our stakeholders, partners and workers in the sector who have been at the core of driving this recovery and we anticipate even more successes as the first English speaking Caribbean country to surpass in any month the arrivals for 2019,” added Bartlett.

“It is truly heartening to see the fruits of our hard work as we continue the efforts to ensure that the destination recovers from the global pandemic,” said Director of Tourism Donovan White.