“Avoid Travel” Level 4 CDC Risk Assessment Removed for Jamaica

Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, today welcomed news that the United States of America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has removed Jamaica from its Level 4 “Avoid Travel to this Destination” risk assessment.

“This is a very positive development. I want to commend our health authorities and the people of Jamaica for working to bring down the rates of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, which augurs well for our risk assessment rankings. Beyond that, the Resilient Corridor remains a very safe space for visitors and workers alike with comparatively high vaccination rates and extremely low infection rates.”

Jamaica is now ranked at Level 3, which urges US trav e lers to be fully vaccinated before travelling. Despite CDC risk assessments, Americans by and large continue to travel to destinations they want to visit.

Senior Advisor and Strategist in the Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright noted that “this is good news indeed. The previous Level 4 ranking caused jitters in some circles and was certainly not good optics. However, with this improved ranking it will be most helpful in our current and very aggressive efforts to boost tourist arrivals from all our markets.”

Minister Bartlett is currently in the United Kingdom (UK) with a high-level team from the Ministry of Tourism and the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) participating in the World Travel Market, one of the largest international tourism trade shows in the world. He is joined by JTB Chairman, John Lynch; Director of Tourism, Donovan White; Senior Advisor & Strategist, Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright; and JTB Regional Director for the UK and Northern Europe, Elizabeth Fox.

The engagements in the UK end a global markets blitz led by Minister Bartlett and his senior officials which included Jamaica’s two largest source markets, the United States and Canada, and reaped massive successes in dramatically boosting airlift to the island and reassuring stakeholders on the COVID-related safety of the destination. The tourism minister also led engagements in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which in part will result in the opening of tourism and investment opportunities for Jamaica.

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