KINGSTON, Jamaica – Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, says Jamaica’s tourism industry is almost fully recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bartlett said that the industry continues to show the signs of robust recovery, with the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) reporting that, for the first half of 2022, it had collected $2.42 billion in passenger fees, compared to $2.63 billion collected in 2019 which marked the start of the pandemic.

Bartlett said that the result is that the industry is now experiencing a 90 per cent recovery from the impact of the pandemic, “which had threatened its very survival.”

“Our recovery, in terms of arrivals this year is likely to be well over three million, and we are also expecting our earnings will be just about $100 million, or so, below our best earnings in 2019 of $3.7 billion,” the Minister explained at the Ministry’s mid-year performance review retreat held at the Sandals Royal Plantation in St Ann.

TEF Executive Director, Dr Carey Wallace, said that the Fund had collected and already transferred to the Accountant General some $2.42 billion, which represented a difference of about 19 per cent of the $2.63 billion earned in 2019, the year prior to the start of the pandemic.

“This indicates that we are performing well, and on the road to recovery from the disruptions to the travel industry caused by the pandemic,” Dr Wallace said.

Parliament passed the Tourism Enhancement Act in 2004, providing the legal basis for the Ministry of Tourism to establish a mechanism for the collection of a small fee from incoming airline and cruise passengers. The Act was amended in 2017, and now allows for a Tourism Enhancement Fee of US$20 charged to incoming airline passengers and US$2 for cruise passengers.

In 2017 legislation was passed in the House of Representatives, to allow for the funds from the TEF to be placed in the Budget. TEF facilitates implementation of the Tourism Master Plan.

– Balford Henry