Jamaica has reported more than 211,000 tourism arrivals since reopening its tourism sector in June, the country’s tourism officials said this week. 

That amounted to tourism earnings of $231.9 million, according to Jamaica Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett. 

Hotel occupancy rates continue to inch up, Bartlett said, leading to cautious optimism for the island’s tourism recovery. 

“I have received reports that some of our hotel properties have reported that they are reaching up to 60% occupancy through a combination of international and local guests, with numbers reaching nearly 90 percent around holiday weekends,” he said.

Continuing that growth is essential, he said during the first-ever virtual staging of the island’s Jamaica Product Exchange conference. 

“Tourism must get back on track. Pre-pandemic, there were 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals; travel and tourism accounted for 10.3% of global GDP, and it employed 1 in 10 persons around the world,” he said. “At home, as we welcomed 4.3 million visitors, the sector earned US$3.7 billion, contributed 9.5 percent to the nation’s GDP and generated some 170,000 direct jobs.”

— CJ