1.5 Million Visitors Expected by December 31

• Jamaica is expected to welcome 1.5Mn visitors by December 31, with estimated earnings of US$1.9Bn. This was noted by Director of Tourism, Donovan White, at a Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) media briefing, held at Moon Palace Resort in St. Ann, on November 10. 
• There has been an uptick in the length of stay of visitors to the destination, since Jamaica reopened, from 7.1 days to eight days, and average visitor spend from US$169 per day per visitor to US$180. This has allowed the Ministry to forecast their revenue projections to just under US$2.0Bn for the calendar year. 
• This improvement has allowed JTB to reforecast when it believes the destination will return to pre-COVID levels of performance, highlighting that it sees that happening round about third quarter of 2023. 
• White said it is expected that by the end of 2023, Jamaica will welcome 4.1Mn visitors, split between 2.5Mn stopovers and 1.6Mn cruise passengers, with a revenue out-turn of about US$4.2Bn in earnings. 
• He noted that in 2019, Jamaica had 4.2Mn visitors, and US$3.7Bn in earnings. He then highlighted that if you go forward to 2023, where they are saying 4.1Mn visitors, but US$4.2Bn in earnings, there’s an uptick of about half a billion dollars in earnings that is anticipated. This, he said, is coming from what they are seeing in the average spend per visitor as well as the length of stay. 
• The growing number of visitors is being aided by recovery in several segments of the tourism industry including the return of cruise activity to Jamaican ports. A contributor to recovering cruise activity is the recent return of Carnival Corporation’s Emerald Princess to the coastal town of Falmouth, Trelawny, Jamaica’s largest port, with some 2,780 passengers and crew members, on Sunday, November 14.

(Source: JIS News & NCBCM Research)