All Hotels Expected to Fully Reopen by December 2026

• Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, recently announced that all hotels are expected to be fully operational by December 2026, following the devastation caused to the sector by Hurricane Melissa. While early stakeholder assessments had suggested that only about 80% of rooms would be available, the recovery outlook has since improved.
• “The energy and the ambitions have grown, and the reality now is that we will have all our 33,000 rooms available and active by December 2026,” Minister Bartlett said. Additionally, owing to the sector’s faster-than-expected hurricane recovery, the projected decline in gross annual earnings has improved from 6% to 3% for fiscal year 2026/27. Gross earnings are now projected at US$3.228Bn, representing a 3% decline from US$3.327Bn recorded in FY2025/26.
• Similarly, for fiscal year 2026/27, total visitor arrivals are expected to fall by a marginal 1%, to 3.741 million. The anticipated arrivals will include 2.278 million stopover tourists and 1.463 million cruise passengers, representing a 14.8% increase in cruise traffic compared to last year, according to the tourism minister.
• That said, no official tourism data for 2026 has yet been released by the Jamaica Tourism Board (JTB). As such, the projections for visitor arrivals, room capacity recovery and sector earnings are based on preliminary government statements and stakeholder assessments rather than confirmed tourism statistics.
• These estimates are supported by broader policy developments, including strengthened bilateral engagement with the United States (U.S.) and the recent improvement in the U.S. Department of State travel advisory for Jamaica from Level 3 to Level 2, which is expected to support the recovery of the hurricane-affected tourism sector.

(Sources: JIS and NCBCM Research)