With over 2.7 million visitors and USD 3.1 billion in tourism receipts, Jamaica has reported its best-ever summer and to keep momentum growing, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is now focussing on the Latin American markets.

Days before Jamaica’s premiere tourism event, Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX) gets underway at Montego Bay, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett says Jamaica has experienced its strongest summer ever, with over 800,000 stopover visitors and 2.7 million visitors overall, leading to a record tourism receipt of USD 3.1 billion.

“We closed the summer with just a little over 800,000 stopover visitors, and when cruise was added, just a little over a million visitors in the period and we earned USD 1.5 billion for Jamaica in this summer, the highest and best that we have had. This is the first time in our history that we have broken the USD 3-billion mark before the ninth month of the year, as we did that at the end of August,” says Bartlett.

On the heels of this, Bartlett is also focussing on multi-destination tourism drive as Jamaica targets the Latin American market, days ahead of JAPEX, which opens on September 11. Bartlett also emphasised the importance of multi-destination tourism and ‘co-petition’ to this initiative.

According to a press statement, Bartlett added that a ‘strong foundation existed for collaboration’ between Jamaica and Latin American countries, with respect to which he recently met with the Ambassadors from Mexico and the Dominican Republic to discuss multi-destination activities geared at collectively boosting tourism offerings across the region.

“This post-Covid period is calling for collaboration and cooperation, removing the notion of competitiveness that has characterised our activities up to this point and replacing it with the notion of ‘co-petitiveness’ so that we ‘co-pete’ rather than compete. As we strive to enhance our product and diversify our visitor base, it is imperative that we tap into emerging markets that hold tremendous potential, and Latin America, with its rich heritage, boundless passion, and growing economic influence, promises to be just that,” he added.

Minister Bartlett says that Jamaica has a great opportunity to position itself as a preferred option for Latin American tourists looking for diverse cultural experiences for the region’s developing middle class, which has increased disposable income and caused a surge in outbound tourism.

“As we strive to enhance our product and diversify our visitor base, it is imperative that we tap into emerging markets that hold tremendous potential, and Latin America, with its rich heritage, boundless passion, and growing economic influence, promises to be just that,” says Bartlett.

“My ministry is targeting just a small fraction of that with a goal of 250,000 visitors from Latin America coming to Jamaica over the next five years as part of our aggressive push to re-engage this significant source market,” he adds.