Jamaica hails record-breaking return of UK visitors

Jamaica has reported a record-breaking number of UK holidaymakers to the island in the first four months of the year and the Jamaica Tourist Board expects arrivals to at least match the previous annual record of 225,000.

Minister of tourism for Jamaica Edmund Bartlett told Travel Weekly: “The UK market is doing extremely well. It is the fastest recovering market for us.

“We are about 90% recovered for international visitors and our earnings are likely to surpass 2019’s level, which would be beyond our expectations.”

He reported hotel average daily room rates in Jamaica “have shot up” and said: “Every carrier to Jamaica is coming in full. The frequency and number of flights has reduced but the aircraft are bigger and they are full.

“Forward bookings are excellent for the rest of this summer and winter is shaping up to be great even against a background of inflation and recession.”

Bartlett noted: “We are one of the most tourism dependent economies in the world, so this swift recovery of British visitors to Jamaica is hugely valuable.”

He insisted: “The recovery has been great for us – better than we hoped.”

But he added: “We are still affected by staff shortages. Cruise has not come back [at the same rate] because of the staff shortages and winter cruise is huge in the Caribbean.”

Bartlett said the Caribbean more widely “is doing fairly well” but he said: “The recovery is not symmetrical – Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Costa Rica are doing well.”

Jamaica has forecast it will receive 3.2 million international visitors over the course of this year.