Jamaica is expecting its best winter season ever in 2023-24 with tourism minister Edmund Bartlett declaring that for the first time in the island’s history, there will be over one million stopover travellers for the season.

Speaking at the Sangster International Airport (SIA) recently, Bartlett said: “It is going to be the biggest winter tourist season in the history of Jamaica. We have already secured 1.5 million seats across the markets of the world and assuming a very low 75% load factor from the airlines coming in we will be in excess of one million stopover arrivals for the season.”

Furthermore, Shane Munroe, Chief Executive Officer of MBJ Airports, which manages the facility, said SIA was expected to reach the milestone of 5 million passengers passing through it in one year for the first time.

Bartlett said consideration was being given to the implications of the boom in terms of revenue flows into the country, secured jobs and growth in the economy as “the tourism industry continues to be at the forefront of that with ten consecutive quarters of growth.”

To meet the demand, the tourism industry in Jamaica is gearing up for significant growth in the coming years, with plans to build 20,000 new rooms, of which 2,000 are already onstream.

In 2023, Bartlett said Jamaica will have welcome more than 4.1 million visitors – an increase of 23.7% over the total number of visitors recorded in 2022.

And Bartlett further emphasized the potential of tourism growth, stating, “We are going after 8 million visitors to Jamaica and 10 billion USD in earnings.”