By the Caribbean Journal staff
Things are looking up for Jamaica’s tourism industry.
The destination, which just concluded its annual Jamaica Product Exchange tourism conference in Montego Bay this week, looks to have strong momentum both for this upcoming tourist season and the next several years.
A total of 7,560 new hotel rooms are in the pipeline from now through 2020, according to Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett.
The planned AC in Kingston.
Additionally, Jamaica will see a total of 1.3 million airplane seats for the upcoming winter tourist season, including 38,000 more seats from the United States.
“Tourism is the only industry in Jamaica that has grown consistently for the past thirty years and it is on track to become the largest contributor to the GDP of our country,” Bartlett said. “As we set our ambitions high for creating new partnerships, we’re simultaneously strengthening our ability to ensure Jamaica can safely, securely and seamlessly connect visitors to their passion point quicker.”
The planned S Hotel in Montego Bay, set to debut in January.
That includes a wave of new hotels set to open imminently, including the S Hotel Montego Bay, which is set for completion in January 2019 with 124 rooms on Montego Bay’s Hip Strip.
Two major properties are coming to Jamaica’s capital, Kingston: the Wyndham Kingston, which will include 454 rooms, and the previously announced AC Marriott, which will debut with 220 rooms in 2019.
— CJ