ROSE HALL, St James — Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has projected that the sector is on a firm path to achieving an 88 per cent recovery by Decemberfollowing the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa last October.

“We will start our winter tourism season with just about 3,000 rooms missing, which is a tremendous performance — if I’m allowed to say so — [despite] the real difficulties that we have had…

in terms of insurance payments, [and] supply chain situations,” Bartlett told journalists on the sidelines of the Jamaica Labour Party Area Council 4 meeting at Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James on Sunday. According to Bartlett, full recovery of the tourism sector is expected by May 2027.

“We are seeing that by the end of the first quarter we could be maybe 95 or 96 per cent and we would perhaps linger down to May or so for the 100 per cent recovery of all the rooms that we had anticipated,” said Bartlett as he commended tourism partners for their combined efforts.

“One of the things that I really wanted to say to the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, the Jamaica Tourist Board, the ground transportation teams, and all the partners — the small and medium players, as well as our attraction entrepreneurs — I want to say that this combination of effort and work on the part of all has been most commendable,” stated Bartlett.

He pointed to the island’s strong placement in global benchmarking and recovery rankings.

“I went through the process to ask how the rest of the world coped and managed after a Category 5 hurricane, and I particularly went through with CDEMA’s (Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency) criteria and ranking to see how countries, particularly in the Americas, have responded.

And in almost every instance except one, Jamaica ranks first. And in one instance we tied with Florida on the recovery data and time and projections,” explained Bartlett.

He argued that the island’s tourism sector recovery process could have been far more advanced if insurance payouts for storm-damaged properties had moved with greater speed.

The tourism minister said where Jamaica falls to number two in the recovery ranking following a major disaster is in the area called the “resilience gap,” which is the cash ready for applications and the outcomes after a storm.

“And this is where, unfortunately, the insurance companies failed us. Because if the payout period was in line with our recovery activities, for sure tourism…would have been closer to 90 per cent ending the year.

In fact, and certainly by 2027, we would have concluded a full recovery by the first quarter,” argued Bartlett.

In its latest update issued over the weekend, the Insurance Association of Jamaica (IAJ) said its members had made $54.35 billion in total property and motor insurance payments islandwide, representing an 89.5 per cent settlement rate across specified categories of claims relating the Hurricane Melissa.

According to the IAJ, 8,357 of the 9,340 claims received were settled as at September 30, 2026.

But there was no breakdown on the claims from the tourism sector which has repeatedly lamented the slow settlement of its claims. Against that background, Bartlett was asked whether hoteliers could turn to the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) to insure their properties, given its faster disbursal times.

CCRIF is the world’s first multi-country, multi-peril risk pool using parametric insurance. It provides quick-disbursing, short-term liquidity to governments and State utilities when natural disasters trigger pre-agreed policy criteria.

“I think one of the things that I have been talking about is a Tourism Resilience Fund to have a provision for parametric insurance, which allows for insurance before and after.

I think I need more guidance on that, but I think CCRIF is more related to countries and less to the private sector. But these discussions, no doubt, can be had because we are in a new space and a new time,” Bartlett responded.

He said he has been piloting the Tourism Resilience Fund initiative both regionally and globally, with encouraging feedback so far. “Multilaterals are beginning to respond… because the need is now strong.

Every day we are seeing more and more disruptions that are either seismic-related — like the earthquakes that are happening all around us — or it is weather with all these ‘earth-hurricanes’ that are happening around us, as well as the extensive dry sessions,” added Bartlett.

He told the media representatives that despite the hurdles, airlift recovery has been particularly robust.

“We are very proud to announce that the winter season will see 1.3 million seats coming into Jamaica, which in fact is 23 per cent better than in 2025 and, of course, is just on par with 2024,” declared Bartlett.

“We are seeing 400,000 seats coming out of Canada as a projection, and some 900,000 coming out of the United States. South America has also responded very powerfully.

South America is the best and fastest-growing area of the market now, and we’re excited about doing more with South America,” Bartlett added.