‘Best Summer ever,’ Bartlett

Jamaica Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett reports the island experienced record-breaking stopover arrivals from May to August, with provisional estimates showing stopover arrivals up by 6% over the same period last year.

“It has definitely has been our best summer ever. We had 884,324 visitors compared to the 834,292 from the period May to August in 2017,” said Bartlett. “These figures contributed to total visitor arrivals (May to August) of 1,312,494, which was a 4.4% increase over the same period last year.”

Data received by the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) also indicates that an estimated gross foreign exchange earnings for the period January to July 2018 were US$1,935.8 million, up 6.3% over the same period in 2017, with stopover arrival earnings of US$1,821.5 million, up 6.2%, and cruise passenger earnings of US$110.1 million, up 8.1%.

“The preliminary data also shows that earnings up to the end of August are over $2 billion. Expenditure from tourists for the first eight months is $2.2 billion. We are trending well ahead of the $3 billion mark for the end of the calendar year,” added the Minister.

Provisional estimates indicate that between January and August of this year, the country welcomed 2,955,007 visitors, an increase of 4.7% over the same period last year. This figure comprised 1,714,060 stop over arrivals and 1,240,947 cruise visitors.

“The projections we made for growth last year was for 5% per annum for five years. Last year we broke all of that with 12% – that is a phenomenal achievement. We are excited about that prospect and we are seeing that we are going to get to that mark,” said Bartlett.