Bullish on securing its triple five objective through which it seeks to earn US$5 billion in earnings as it welcomes five million tourist arrivals over a targeted 5-year period ending 2025, Jamaica’s tourism sector continues to surpass expectations already delivering more than a billion in revenues since the start of this year.

Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett, speaking at a Jamaica Observer Business Forum last week, said the local sector, which was brought to a complete standstill during the COVID-19 outbreak, has since its resumption been back with a bang despite some impact from global challenges including inflation, labour shortages and air-connectivity issues.

“Within the first year of reopening our borders, we welcomed one million visitors and earned just a little over US$1 billion. We continued to grow and in 2023 we broke the four million barrier to have 4.1 million visitors and year to date 1.1 million visitors and US$1.25 billion. In just two and a half months we, therefore, have seen over a million tourists and earned over US$1 billion for Jamaica which shows that we remain on track to achieve our objective,” Bartlett said.

Among some of the other key performance indicators set for achievement over the five-year period, the minister said are plans to add about 15,000 new hotel rooms, over 2,800 of which it expects to come this year, as well as approximately 40,000 new employment opportunities and to grow retained earnings from US$0.30 to US$0.50 from every US$1.

Dating to as far back as 1987 when the country for the first time welcomed one million visitors, Bartlett said the sector has since then witnessed consistent growth, 37 years later welcoming more than a million tourists each year.

With the recent launch of the 42nd staging of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’ (CHTA) hosted Caribbean Travel Marketplace which is slated to get underway from May 20 to 22 in Montego Bay, the local industry is expecting to benefit from strong stakeholder engagement as it deepens partnerships and promote the growth and development of regional tourism. The event is to be attended by over 1,000 delegates and more than 150 buyer countries across the globe.

The local industry, which to a greater extent has been left unscathed by a recent US travel advisory which warned its citizens against travels to Jamaica in the wake of high crime and violence, Bartlett said continues to benefit from strong demand from major source markets led by the US.

The US market, which represents as the largest for Jamaica behind Canada and UK, has over the last decade driven the bulk of local earnings. Up to 2023, arrivals from the destination stood at 2.2 million or more than half of total stopovers, growing almost 40 per cent above pre-COVID levels.

As the sector however ups focus on plans to double down on new markets, growth, the minister said, is expected to spiral even further.

Following last year’s hosting of a strong delegation from the Middle Eastern country of Saudi Arabia which came to the island in search of investment opportunities, the tourism minister said that while no tangible outcomes have yet materialised, discussions remain ongoing with an expectation for benefits to come in the near future.

“The projects out of Saudi Arabia are now in the process of evaluation; therefore, much of the future of this relationship remains locked in negotiations and the harmonisation of policies. Considering this, I believe that we could begin to see investments coming out of this areas by 2025/26,” he told journalists.

Further commenting on developments regarding the start of commercial flights to the Ian Fleming Airport in Boscobel, St Mary, by international carrier American Airlines last month, Bartlett said that this too is expected to bring substantial returns for the local economy, especially now as other airlines “actively look to fly to Boscobel”.

“There is no doubt that once an opportunity is created for one of the largest carriers to come to one of our airports, that competing airlines will also want to look into the space. These are, however, developing situations and we can only report on them when they are formed,” stated Director of Tourism Donovan White, remaining cautiously optimistic while holding back on the details.

“American Airlines, [on the other hand], is happy with where they are now and there are also ambitions to increase frequency, but this will come based on the demand,” White said.