Jamaican tourism took a dive during last year’s lockdown — but this month, the country celebrated its one-millionth tourist since the ending of the lockdown.
“Over the period, tax revenues performed better than budgeted and tax revenues from all three major tax types improved substantially over last year,” finance minister Dr. Nigel Clarke said in a statement issued to the Jamaica Observer.
Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett credited Jamaica’s recent boost in tourism to the growing economy.
“So, when we examine what has tourism done for that and that’s what also gives me a sense of pride today [yesterday] that in this quarter under review tourism increase by 5,000% in arrivals and our earnings increased by 3,900%,” says Bartlett. “So, we have no doubt as to the impact of tourism on the economic recovery programme and the numbers that were announced today [yesterday] by the minister of finance.”
The island is still under curfew and has undertaken preventative measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 across the country.
On Sunday, Bartlett announced that tourism workers in Jamaica who interface with cruise-ship passengers must be vaccinated.
Bartlett added that the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) would be taking the lead role in a private sector-led initiative to get all tourism workers vaccinated.
“We want all workers to be vaccinated and are going to be very strong. We have established a special task force under the co-chairmanship of the permanent secretary, Jennifer Griffith, and the president of the JHTA, Clifton Reader, to drive this process … ,” he said.
