ST JAMES, Jamaica — As Jamaica’s recovery following Hurricane Melissa continues to take shape, the business community in St James- Montego Bay in particular- has welcomed the return of cruise tourism.

On Wednesday morning, the Carnival Liberty cruise ship docked at the pier in Montego Bay, bringing hundreds of passengers into Jamaica’s tourism hub.

It is one of the first ships to return to the port, and President of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, Jason Russell, was pleased with the development.

“It goes without saying that this will benefit the business operators in the parish,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“The only way to recover, in Jamaica on a whole, is to get tourists back on the island, get that foreign exchange flowing,” he added.

Since the passage of the Category Five storm, the tourism sector has suffered a major hit, but the return of cruise calls is expected to support the country’s turnaround.

“We can’t build back Jamaica without tourists coming back into the country and we hope the hotels push equally as hard and get their individual properties open because Jamaica is open for business,” said Russell.

A similar view was shared by Joy Roberts, executive director of Jamaica Vacations, the tourism ministry’s agency responsible for cruise travel into the country.

“When we saw the opportunity in the Ministry [of Tourism] having known that some of the hotels would be out, we ensured that at least cruise would be there because as you know cruise goes straight to the small man, the bus drivers, the craft vendors, the shops, the attractions and that sort of thing,” she explained.

“One by one the attractions in the area are opening up also and so it brings some economic activity for the area,” she declared.

Montego Bay is highly dependent on tourism, with more than 50 per cent of the local economy and employment tied to the sector.

According to Russell, the signs suggest that travellers want to return, but cruise lines must see standards maintained and Jamaica is already meeting those.

With this development, visitors are expected to arrive in increasing numbers, and businesses that are open stand to benefit.

“We are elated and I think this probably would break some records in terms of a destination being hit by a record-breaking hurricane and then bouncing back in the time period,” he said.

“It is a clear indication that it’s not just verbage that we are open but that we are actually open. A cruise ship coming to a port is not taken lightly, these are decisions that they don’t just do willy nilly based on what people say,” he continued.

“The destination would have had to be inspected, infrastructure inspected by the cruise and for them to actually come means that we have passed,” he added.

He went on to praise the Tourism Recovery Taskforce, led by John Byles, for its role in bringing the country to a point where visitors and cruise lines feel confident returning.

“He did during COVID and he was appointed again and kudos to him, big praise to him and his committee for getting this done,” Russell stated.

For Roberts, the return of cruise ships is a testament to the Jamaican spirit and the resilience of its people, something visitors are witnessing first-hand.

“We would have seen with the ships that we’ve had recently, people walking out and it is my understanding that in the early part of Wednesday morning, I heard that there were over 800 people on the road from the Carnival ship,” she disclosed.

She added that more ships are expected in the coming weeks as the country returns to its pre–Hurricane Melissa schedule.