Jamaica Remains Optimistic About Winter Tourist Season

Jamaica remains optimistic for the 2020/2021 winter tourist season which officially began on Tuesday, December 15.

The projections see a 40 percent increase in arrivals over the season when compared to the preceding periods of massive downturn.  

During Tuesday’s sitting of Parliament, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett gave an update on the state of the industry.

This is the time of the year when travelers leave the colder times to experience the tropics, visiting family and friends.

And although COVID-19 has dramatically impacted travel the outlook for the 2020-2021 winter tourist season is a positive one, as Jamaica continues to navigate through the uncertainties, to build back a stronger and more resilient tourism sector.

The projection is for between four hundred to five hundred thousand visitors to arrive over the four-month season, which ends in April. 

Since the reopening of the country’s borders on June 15 up to December 14, more than 317,000 passengers arrived in the island, while the sector has earned over 450 million us dollars.

Meanwhile Bartlett introduced, the “Jamaica Cares” Programme, a travel insurance plan that will cover cost of testing for symptomatic travelers, quarantine or isolation in a medical facility.

According to Bartlett investors continue to show confidence in the Jamaican market.

The Minister says to date, there has been no known case of transmission of COVID-19 along the resilient corridor.

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