With a record winter tourist season on the horizon and 10 consecutive quarters of growth posted, Jamaica is reporting visitor arrivals of approximately 4.1 million for 2023. This represents a 16% increase over the previous year’s numbers and a 7.5% increase over 2019 pre-pandemic numbers. Of this total, more than half of the island’s visitors are from the US at approximately 3 million.

“Jamaica continues to break records in terms of tourism arrivals in a spectacular pattern of growth,” said Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism, Jamaica. “It is deeply gratifying to remain a top destination of choice among travellers internationally as well as from our primary source market, the US, and maintain our position as one of the world’s leading tourism destinations. Based on arrival figures to date, we fully expect to post an 11th consecutive quarter of significant expansion.”

Donovan White, Director of Tourism, Jamaica Tourist Board, added, “With a 42% repeat visitor rate overall complementing our remarkable visitor arrivals growth, we are confident that 2024 will be yet another record-breaking year. In addition, we continue to add new airlift from key gateways and will have a number of new hotels opening throughout the year to support our tourism growth trajectory.”

Canada is Jamaica’s second-largest tourist market, currently with 300,000 visitors. Jamaica’s Tourism Team are making it their mission to increase that to 500,000 by 2025, thus surpassing the previous high set in 2010, when 400,000 Canadian tourists visited Jamaica.

To achieve this, Bartlett shared that the team is setting up discussions with major airlines such as Air Canada, WestJet, and Canada Jetlines, to enhance the frequency of flights from Canada.

In 2024, Jamaica expects to add 2,000 new rooms to its hotel stock with the debuts of the first 1,000 rooms of the 2,000-room Princess Grand Jamaica, the 753-room Riu Palace Aquarelle and the 450-room Unico Hotel in Montego Bay. From the US alone, Jamaica will welcome new service between Miami and Ocho Rios by American Airlines starting February 24 as well as a new non-stop flight from Cleveland to Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport by Frontier starting on March 9.

Each year, Jamaica hosts a number of mega events that drive tourism arrivals including Rebel Salute in January, Blue Mountain Coffee Festival in March, Carnival in April, Reggae Sumfest in July, and the Jamaica Food and Drink Festival in November, to name just a few.