Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says arrival figures for July shows that an estimated 250,584 visitors arrived on the island — the highest number the country has ever seen for the summer months.
Jamaica has also welcomed nearly two million visitors since the beginning of the year to July 31 and has earned over $2 billion.
“Stopover arrivals have increased phenomenally over the period. However, what is even more impressive is the progress we have made over the past five years. In 2015 – 2016 we increased arrivals by 29,022. For 2016 – 2017 we increased by 75, 628.
“During the period 2017 – 2018 we increased by 73, 941 and this year so far, we have increased by 132, 980 almost doubling the performance from last year,” said Minister Bartlett.
He noted that this performance places Jamaica is in a good place with the industry globally and outpaces the Ministry’s projections.
“This indeed is phenomenal and I really want to congratulate the industry’s workers, partners, stakeholders, my Ministerial colleagues and all others who have worked so hard to enable tourism to achieve this level of improvement. I am satisfied that the earnings, as projected, is also at a high – we’re 8.4% over last year,” he said.
MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944