KINGSTON, Jamaica – Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has declared that tourism “will be the biggest driver of economic growth and prosperity in Jamaica for years to come”.

Bartlett made the declaration on Tuesday as he opened the 2023/24 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives.

Bartlett, fondly called ‘Mr Tourism’, reeled off statistics which showed the level of contribution from the tourism sector to the public purse over the past few years. He also highlighted the significance of the tourism product to economic growth.

Bartlett also pointed out that the tourism sector contributed significantly to the growth in the overall economy and other industries, such as the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry which was estimated to have grown by 9.0 per cent.

“This improvement reflected the impact of increased demand, particularly from the tourism sector, which grew consequently on the relaxation of previously implemented COVID-19 measures,” Bartlett said.

He also noted that in 2022, Jamaica welcomed 3.3 million visitors, a 117 per cent increase over 2021, with estimated foreign exchange earnings of roughly US$3.7 billion. He said 2022 earnings represented a 71.4 per cent increase when compared to 2021, when earnings totalled US$2 billion.

Bartlett also highlighted that monthly stopover arrivals began to surpass 2019 figures as of June 2022 and thus it is expected that 2023 will show a full recovery in annual figures, ahead of previous estimates that full recovery would occur in 2024, with projections of 3.8 million visitors and foreign exchange earnings of US$4.1 billion.

And, Bartlett said that for the January to March 2023 period, it is estimated that Jamaica welcomed 1.185 million visitors, which represents growth of 94.4 per cent, when compared to the same period in 2022.

The tourism minister said that for the period January to September 2022, Jamaica earned J$8.6 billion in Guest Accommodation Room Tax (GART) and General Consumption Tax (GCT) when compared to 2021 when the collections were J$3.7 billion, representing a 139.2 per cent increase. The 2022 GCT and GART collections exceeded the 2019 collections by 16.2 per cent when approximately J$7.4 billion that was collected from GCT and GART.

Bartlett said investments continue to boom and drive tourism recovery.

He said: “Over the last four years, tourism investments have contributed to 20 per cent of the island’s total Foreign Direct Investments. For the next five to 10 years, there are multiple upcoming investment projects, which will see an additional 15,000 to 20,000 new rooms with investments valuing US$4 billion to US$5 billion”.

For calendar year 2022, Government revenue, from the tourism sector, through TEF charges, airport charges and taxes, was approximately J$40.6 billion.

Bartlett said it was “absolutely important that you are made aware of the work that we have been doing over the last year in repositioning the sector to achieve higher growth rates, a better spread of the benefits of tourism to each and every Jamaican and stronger linkages throughout the economic fabric of this beautiful island”.