Total visitor arrivals to Jamaica — including the combination of air and cruise passengers — topped 4 million last year, a new record for the Caribbean island, according to local tourism officials.
The country’s 4.1 million visitors represented a 16 percent jump over 2022, and a 7.5 percent increase over 2019, before the onset of the pandemic. More than half of all of the combined visitors were from the all-important United States market.
Jamaica did not share the breakdown of stayover (air) arrivals compared to cruise passenger arrivals. It’s not clear why.
“Jamaica continues to break records in terms of tourism arrivals in a spectacular pattern of growth,” said the Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism, Jamaica. “It is deeply gratifying to remain a top destination of choice among travelers internationally as well as from our primary source market, the U.S., and maintain our position as one of the world’s leading tourism destinations. Based on arrival figures to date, we fully expect to post an 11th consecutive quarter of significant expansion.”
To help accommodate that projected growth, Jamaica says it expects to see the addition of 2,000 new hotel rooms this year.
That includes the planned debut of the first phase of the Princess Grand Jamaica, the 753-room Riu Palace Aquarelle and the first-ever Unico-branded resort in Jamaica: the 450-room Unico in Montego Bay.
Unico has an outstanding all-inclusive resort in the Rivera Maya.
“With a 42% repeat visitor rate overall complementing our remarkable visitor arrivals growth, we are confident that 2024 will be yet another record-breaking year,” said Jamaica Tourism Director Donovan White. “In addition, we continue to add new airlift from key gateways and will have a number of new hotels opening throughout the year to support our tourism growth trajectory.”