Jamaica welcomes millionth stopover visitor, earns over US$1.2b
ST JAMES, Jamaica — Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett today welcomed the millionth stopover visitor to the island for the year to date.
According to a release from the ministry this afternoon, the minister said this landmark achievement, earned the tourism sector in excess of US$1.2 billion for the same period.
“This is the first time ever that we have recorded a million stop over arrivals before the middle of the year. We are very excited about that because it feeds into the growth projections that we have,” Bartlett was quoted as saying.
The ministry said he made the remark after greeting Jamaica’s millionth stopover visitor Paulette Murray and her husband Henry. The couple arrived at the Sangster International Airport (SIA) on an American Airlines flight out of Philadelphia, USA.
Earlier, it was projected that the millionth visitor would arrive on or about the end of June.
However, Bartlett said all projections were being exceeded as, at the end of May there were 970,000 visitors, rising sharply to today’s million.
He said this was significant, “not only because it means a million opportunities are provided for jobs and for earnings but it also helps to quantify the actual revenue flow in foreign exchange into the country”.