Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, says the popular destination has made an almost complete recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jamaica was an early frontrunner in reopening during the pandemic, welcoming back visitors starting in June 2020, when few other destinations were making the same move. Jamaica’s well-thought out reopening plans included its COVID-19 Resilient Corridor, starting with the coastline from Negril to Port Antonio.

Now, more than two years later, tourism to Jamaica is thriving and back to 90% of pre-pandemic numbers, says Minister Bartlett. He shared the latest stats during a meeting last week with members of a special delegation from the Republic of Namibia, led by the African nation’s Minister in the Presidency, Christine || Hoebes.

“The good news is that Jamaica has now recovered 90% from the COVID-19 pandemic in the tourism sector,” said Minister Bartlett. He added that Jamaica’s recovery in terms of arrivals this year “is likely to be well over 3 million, and we are also expecting our earnings will be just about $100 million, or so, below our best earnings in 2019 of $3.7 billion.”

In June 2022 Jamaica achieved another major milestone in its road to recovery: its one millionth stopover arrival for the year.

Minister Bartlett was visiting Namibia in part to confirm the establishment of a satellite centre of the Jamaica-based, Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) in the coming months.

Source: Travelweek