Jamaica has recorded close to one million visitors since reopening the doors to its tourism sector in June 2020, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett revealed yesterday.

According to the minister, a total of 816,632 tourists have visited the island since June 14, 2020, with 510,000, or 62 per cent, of those visitors arriving in Jamaica since January this year. But, this figure does not include passengers using Jamaican passports.

Bartlett also noted that the arrivals over the one-year period have delivered estimated earnings of US$1.312 billion, of which US$97.58 million would have accrued directly to the Government.

These earnings have been broken down as follows: US$1.2 billion in visitors’ expenditure; US$28.5 million in departure tax; US$19.5 million in passenger fees and charges; US$1.6.3 million in airline passenger levy; and US$8.5 million in hotel room taxes.

Bartlett said that among the main factors which have contributed to these achievement is that the country’s 0.6 per cent infection or positivity rate level within its Resilient Corridors has stood out as “the most outstanding social bubble anywhere in the world”.

The corridors include the coastline from Negril to Port Antonio (North Coast Corridor) and from Milk River to Negril (South Coast Corridor). Only businesses within the corridor that have been trained and assessed for adherence to COVID-19 protocols have been allowed to open to tourists.

“More recently, we named a special task force to spearhead efforts to boost Jamaica’s COVID-19 testing capacity,” Bartlett said, noting that this task force has been working with the Ministry of Health and Wellness and tourism stakeholders, both within the public and private sectors, to boost the island’s capacity to facilitate widescale COVID-19 testing for visitors.

As of July 1, fully vaccinated people will no longer have to quarantine upon entry into Jamaica.

This is according to the latest announcements by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in Tuesday’s sitting of the House of Representatives.

Holness said fully vaccinated people now have the option of taking an approved PCR test and upon presentation of negative results, they can be released from the quarantine order.