Early this month Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Mr Edmund Bartlett announced that stopover arrivals in June had climbed to 224,000, surpassing the 222,000 recorded in June 2019.

The latter arrival figure was, of course, eight months prior to the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 which brought Jamaica’s tourism industry to a grinding halt.

“We completed one million visitors in June, and we expect to have the second millionth visitor in October. These figures and the trends so far are a clear indication that we will meet our targets and even surpass them,” Mr Bartlett was quoted as saying in a release from the Ministry of Tourism in early July.

We are told that, for 2022, Jamaica is projecting continued rapid recovery with approximately 2.5 million visitor arrivals and total visitor spend of about US$3 billion.

A great strength is that Mr Bartlett and his team never seem satisfied — constantly on the lookout for new opportunities.

Last month, for example, Mr Bartlett was pointing to fast-growing Asia, with its population of 4.5 billion people.

“This area represents the new frontier for us. We [Jamaica’s tourism] are very strong in the Americas and north-western Europe, and [are] also building strength in South America, but we are relatively flat in the Asian and the Middle Eastern markets,” he was reported as telling an interviewer at the 29th edition of an Arabian Travel Market (ATM) event in Dubai.

Back then, Mr Bartlett identified India as the “next big oyster” for Jamaica’s tourism.

“In fact, we think that India has enormous potential as a romance and wedding destination — and Jamaica is the perfect place for weddings. People can get married on the beaches, mountains, river banks, waterfalls, or just about anywhere. It is also a tremendous destination for anniversaries and for celebrating occasions, and I know that the Indians have a very strong tradition for family and celebrating. They also love cricket and we play great cricket,” Mr Bartlett said back then.

He has said that he plans to capitalise on the popularity of Jamaican cricketer-turned-reggae artiste Mr Chris Gayle in a promotional campaign to attract Indian visitors.

Then this week, at an Organization of American States (OAS) policy forum in Montego Bay, Mr Bartlett pointed to the value of a multi-destinational approach to Caribbean tourism with a regional visa as a central feature. It’s a point he has made before.

Says Mr Bartlett: “We need to rationalise the airspace so that airlines flying into the Caribbean will pay one fee… pre-clearance arrangements that will allow for visitors coming into the region who have tourism visas… to clear Customs in Jamaica, in Trinidad, and Barbados, and so on….

“Let’s say, for example, you’re coming from China, you have three weeks of vacation, you don’t want to spend three weeks in Jamaica alone, but you can spend a week in Jamaica, three days here, two days there, another day somewhere else, and you come back to wherever the hub was… One fee, one package, one price. And we all benefit from it together…”

It’s a vision which this newspaper applauds.

We say to Mr Bartlett and his team, keep visualising, and never be afraid to stray from the ‘box’ for the greater good of Jamaica, the wider region, and our tourism product.