ST JAMES, Jamaica — As Jamaica continues to record strong growth in tourist arrivals, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is forecasting that the island will end the first five months of the year with an unprecedented two million stopover and cruise visitors.

He noted that so far this year, the country has welcomed some 1.8 million visitors, made up of 1.1 million stopovers and 733,000 cruise visitors.

“Jamaica will, for the first time in our history, record two million visitors in stopover and cruise, in the first five months of the year,” Bartlett noted.

He further noted that “the state of the tourism industry in Jamaica is strong and flourishing,” with gross earnings up for the 2023/24 fiscal year projected to reach US$4.38 billion.

The tourism minister argued that with the current momentum, Jamaica is also on track to achieve its goal of attracting five million visitors in five years, earning the country US$5 billion by 2025.

He was speaking on Tuesday at CHTA 42nd Caribbean Travel Marketplace, being staged at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James from May 20-22.

With over 40 countries being represented by the 1,000 plus delegates, the tradeshow is being covered by a strong contingent of 50 media representatives from major international, regional and local outlets, offering a combined reach in excess of 400 million people.