Jamaica saw surging tourism growth last year, fueled largely by a dramatic increase in visits by travelers from the United States. 

Jamaica reported 1.838 million stayover arrivals from the United States market, which represented a 12.9 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to newly-released numbers from the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

Overall, Jamaica saw 8.4 percent growth in stayover arrivals, with a total of 2.68 million visitors in the 2019 calendar year. 

The growth was driven in part by the country’s renewed focus on attracting new airlift, with a host of carriers ramping up flights to Jamaica — both to its tourism hub of Montego Bay and, increasingly, to Kingston, a destination for which the country has big tourism plans, too. 

The country also saw strong growth from nontraditional markets, with 125,815 stayover arrivals in markets other than the “big three” of the United States, Canada and Europe. 

That represented an 8.5 percent increase, a strong testament to the country’s push to attract new airlift — and new travelers — from markets like Latin America, Asia and Russia, among other source markets. 

The jump in arrivals came as the country saw a slight decline of 1.1 percent from Canada, which sent the island a total of 395,561 visitors last year. 

— CJ