KINGSTON, Jamaica – Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says approximately 1,500 new jobs are to come on stream in the tourism industry with the opening of two new hotels in Western Jamaica.
Bartlett, made the disclosure as he opened the 2024/25 sectoral debate in parliament earlier this week, he said the new positions will result from the completion of more than 2,000 new rooms this year.
“We will open… 750 rooms at RIU, Trelawny, and later in the month of May, we will open [Princess Grand Jamaica] in Green Island [Hanover], with 1,000 rooms, and that will provide a new wave of some 1,500 new jobs… for people,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bartlett informed that 29 per cent of all the visitors who came to Jamaica stayed in an Airbnb.
“It is a new dynamic business model that is revolutionising the accommodation subsector and is generating income and resources to the ordinary people across the length and breadth of Jamaica.”
Data has indicated that last year, Airbnb generated an estimated J$31.8 billion in gross earnings from 1.3 million guest nights.
Concerning travel advisories, Bartlett said Jamaica’s visitor arrivals have not been negatively affected .
Addressing the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House on Wednesday, he said travel advisories are the “purview” of Jamaica’s international partners.
“In evaluating what they regard as the state of our three Ss – safety, security and seamlessness – they do gradings. It is our job to ensure that at all times when the grades are done, that we are at the highest level of their evaluation.”
He further shared that Jamaica is working feverishly at removing those elements that are considered to foster a negative evaluation.
“We are working also with our diplomatic partners to enable a better understanding of the Jamaican situation, and also we are relying heavily now on Jamaica’s history of strong, safe and secure experiences,” Bartlett said.
He pointed out that Jamaica has a 42 per cent repeat business, which is the highest in the region and the incidents that occur are limited in relation to the visitor population.
Stopover arrivals for the 2023/24 fiscal year are estimated at 2.96 million, reflecting a 9.4 per cent increase, while cruise arrivals are estimated at 1.34 million, up by nine per cent from the previous period in 2022/23.
“I’m happy that the market does not share the views of much of the advisories that come to us; that’s why we’re able to give you the numbers that we gave,” he said.
