Donovan White, Director of Tourism for the Jamaican Tourist Board, was in Toronto last week spreading the good word about Jamaica. “We’re open for business and we are ready to invite the world in and show them the time of their life and what they have been missing,” he told us. Jamaica has removed all restrictions. There are no mask mandates and no longer are COVID tests required.

And people have responded. “People are coming and that’s the good thing. They’ve taken the invitation.” Said White. “So, our numbers are growing every day. We ended our last fiscal cycle, which was March 31, 2022, at about 1.9 million arrivals, total. That’s about 2.7 billion US dollars in earnings. That 1.9 million visitors is about 800,000 more than what we forecasted to have for the last fiscal cycle.”

“It’s a fantastic recovery. We’re still only about 60, 68, 70% of 2019 numbers.” Said the director, but he noted, that’s still very good and that has put Jamaica on a fast track to full recovery, all things being equal.

“It’s important that I say that, because we’re still in a pandemic, officially. The virus is still very much around, so we can’t let our guards down. We can’t get complacent. We can’t ignore the fact that we’re still in a health crisis, but we have, for the last two years, balanced carefully, creating a balance between lives and livelihoods, keeping people at work, getting people to work, getting the product to work, improving the tourism product. Because at the end of the day, tourism is our number one industry.”

Tourism provides job security for Jamaicans and earnings for the country in terms of the GDP to which tourism contributes over 30%, both direct and indirect or induced, said White, adding that it’s a huge industry and very interconnected with a large number of other industries that serve it.

These backward and forward linkages of tourism are phenomenal and that’s what makes the economy turn he told us, so bringing tourism back and doing whatever has to be done to make it work, “has been our foremost and most important objective. And we’re going to continue in that vein as we move forward into 22,23.”

I had spoken earlier with Angella Bennett, Regional Director of Tourism, Canada about the shortages of people working in tourism in Canada and in the US, in fact the entire tourism and entertainment sector has a shortage of workers. White agrees that like everywhere else, Jamaica is having the same problem.

The reason, he suggested, is the fact that during the pandemic, many people found new, enabled opportunities. Some through entrepreneurship, some moved on to other industries, some moved on to other countries of residence, a lot of people retired, and unfortunately, a lot of people also died.

“And so, what we’re finding is that tourism across the world is at a reset moment because we’re having to engage the new tourism worker, we’re having to train more than we’ve ever trained before. We’re having to reclassify jobs more than we’ve ever done before.”

We asked whether salaries were being raised and he said that was part of the reclassification.

“Part of the challenge that the industry has had globally, is that a lot of people who work in the industry are indeed qualified, but not certified. And so their level of mobility and agility to move within the industry wasn’t there because they didn’t have the necessary certifications.” Said White.

“But some of them were very qualified people. So, what you find happening is that a lot of those people have moved on to new industries and found new opportunities there. Now we’re having to engage inexperienced talent in an industry that requires a lot of experience and a lot of know-how. So you can see where the gaps are. The gap is in training. And being able to do that with any level of proficiency and efficiency is going to take some time, not just for Jamaica, but for everybody who is in a tourism dependent country.”

We asked about the infrastructure in Jamaica. And yes, new hotels are being built and other hotels used the opportunity to upgrade during the pandemic. We understood too that there is a new Highway being built between Kingston and Port Antonio through St. Thomas – was this a more a benefit for local people or is it a tourism benefit?

“Anytime you have a country that is engaging the development of new infrastructure it has to be for the people of country. Because it becomes a permanent part of their infrastructure that they engage every single day.” Said White.

“So, it’s for the people of Jamaica. Tourism benefits from it. Because obviously now you’re able to move traffic much faster over longer the distances over shorter periods. So people can engage more parts of the country much faster. In addition to which, the area through which the highway will run, which is St. Thomas, is identified and earmarked for a new destination development.”

This area on the eastern end of the country is going to be Jamaica’s new destination, once developed, said White.

“It is closest to the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, so tourism will benefit from this new infrastructure, but the people of St. Thomas get the benefit because they get the benefit of traversing the highway as an easier thoroughfare every single day of their lives. It enables them to get to and from the capital, Kingston, much faster.”

New highways that are already in place between Kingston and Ocho Rios, for example, he says, have cut travelling time by more than almost an hour and the same is expected of the new highway.

“Part of the overall infrastructure approach to development in Jamaica in terms of our road network is to continually improve these highways, make them wider, create bypasses to take them away from major towns so that you have less thoroughfare running through the town, rather running around the town instead.”

This is to happen with the new Port Antonio bypass, so that traffic in town is eased. The same would happen in Montego Bay, where there’s a new bypass highway that takes most of the traffic out of the town of Montego Bay so that it truly becomes a relaxed town rather than a high traffic town, same with St. Anne’s Bay and other places in the central parts of Jamaica.

“There’s a constant review and relook at how we are developing as a nation. So that Jamaicans first and foremost, are the beneficiaries over time, over the next 60 years, from these developments. And whilst Jamaicans are benefiting, industries like our number one industry, which is tourism, also benefits, because (the developments) create more jobs, more opportunity. Road networks create even more business opportunities that serves tourism but also serves the national good.” Said White.

We asked about the new development in St. Thomas – how long would it take and when does it start.

“The Ministry of Tourism has already done tremendous amount of development studies on the area itself, in terms of the various opportunities that exist, the land, the fall of the land, the grading of the land, the types of vegetation, the types of natural life, wildlife. Identifying areas for development in terms of hotels, in terms of attractions, in terms of small and medium sized businesses that can serve the industry and also serve the communities.”

“So that development work is already done and earmarked. What we now have to do, from a government standpoint, is to begin to look at what is required, from a capacity standpoint, in terms of the development on the ground. Infrastructure, water, sewage, electricity, all that kind of stuff. And then once you’ve earmarked that and you begin to put that kind of intensive infrastructure work in place, then you can look about, or simultaneously be looking at investors that want to invest in a space where it’ll be greenfield development. So, everything is coming out of the ground because that doesn’t exist today.”

However, he said, there are some natural attractions that are in place, like the Bath Fountain, which is a hot water spring that sits on a couple of acres of land that has a natural affinity to natural spa. It’s an area rich in minerals and underground springs and lots of water because it sits at the foot of the Blue Mountain Peak.

“It’s an area that is really, that we believe has a lot of potential, I would say, over the next 10 years. I think it will take that kind of systematic approach to make it work. But once it starts developing, it is going to go, I think, really fast.”

What White told us was that the new development could well differ from the current propensity for all inclusive resorts. Travellers today he said, are looking for experiences. They are more discerning than in the past, interested in local food, heritage and historic sites. Expect more street food, restaurants, farm to table fare and vegan cooking. Europeans particularly, are often backpackers – staying a few days in each new place – or using a hotel as a hub while they explore the country. This new generation of travellers are out to make friends and learn about the country and culture so they can go home to talk about their adventures.

And Jamaica, now open and welcoming to international travellers is the perfect choice for exactly those experiences.