The Paramount Pictures film ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ is projected to help boost tourism in Jamaica in 2024, following its increased tourism numbers in 2023.
As reports, Donovan White, the Jamaica Tourist Board’s director of Tourism, indicated in February that 2023 tourism numbers were expected to see an 18% increase over 2019 figures. The country is projected to have earned $4.3 billion and had approximately 4.1 million visitors to the island, not including cruise ship passengers, in 2023.
Jamaica is also adding thousands of hotel rooms and service flights from the United States to Jamaica. White said: “With a 42 percent 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 several new hotels opening throughout the year to support our tourism growth trajectory.” In 2022, Jamaica added 8,000 hotel rooms, pouring in $2 billion and creating jobs for 24,000 hotel workers, including full and part-time employees.
In addition, the expansion of the hotel industry led to the creation of 12,000 jobs for construction workers. White recently indicated that 15,000 hotel rooms are anticipated to open in Jamaica over the next five to seven years.
Of that total, in 2024, over 2,000 rooms are expected to be added across four properties. In 2022, Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said in an official statement: “We are delighted with the developments in the local tourism industry, which will undoubtedly have a positive effect on the economy and directly benefit thousands of Jamaicans.
“Tourism is a supply chain industry that spans multiple economic sectors, including construction, agriculture, manufacturing, banking, and transportation.” The tourism numbers and the numbers from its hospitality industry are encouraging for the island nation.
“The island consistently ranks among the top destinations for international travel, welcoming 4.1 million visitors in 2023, with approximately 3 million from the United States. Visitors can continue to come with confidence to enjoy all that Jamaica has to offer.”
Bartlett said that the country was experiencing spectacular growth. “Jamaica continues to break records in terms of tourism arrivals in a spectacular pattern of growth,” he said. “It is deeply gratifying to remain a top destination of choice among travellers internationally as well as from our primary source market, the U.S., 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.”
