Jamaica’s tourism industry is moving back to where it was before the coronavirus pandemic. Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett made the announcement on March 13 after a tour of the Sangster International Airport in the resort city of Montego Bay.
“I am pleased to advise the country that our tourism industry is back on track. This weekend was a record weekend. Over 30,000 visitors came through the Sangster International Airport (SIA) and Kingston combined. We are expecting that the out-turn will be close to 35,000 for the weekend, starting on Thursday,” he said.
“This will bring us right back to 2019 level and we expect that this month of March will be the strongest month that we have seen since the pandemic,” the tourism minister added.
The weekend’s 30,000-plus arrivals follow 27,000 visitors at SIA the week before. Bartlett anticipates that more than 200,000 visitors will arrive in Jamaica in March.
From January 1 to March 7, the island’s two major international airports received 359,763 visitors.
“We are seeing that the infrastructure that supports tourism is strengthened, we are also seeing that the linkages that enable the tourism experience will now be activated and much of the players and partners who have had to suffer over the long period of drought during the pandemic are now beginning to see a ray of hope,” Bartlett said.
