Jamaican Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, recently said that he expects the destination to make a full recovery from the impact of Covid-19 by 2023. This is a year earlier than many analysts had anticipated at the outset of the crisis last spring.

Minister Bartlett outlined the severity of the damage over the past year-and-a-half. He explained Jamaica had anticipated 2.9 million stopover visitors for April 2020 to March this year, while these guests were expected to spend around $200 billion. In fact, with under 500,000 visitors actually arriving, expenditure was only $44 billion.

Speaking at a meeting of the Caribbean Alternative Investment Association (CARAIA), he said that recovery is going to be a slow and arduous process, but the country is already seeing very positive signs and hence he is confident that by 2023 it will once again be seeing significant gains. He was confident that by 2023, Jamaica will be on the to recovery with projections of 3.7 million visitors and earning US$3.5 billion in revenue; and by 2024 the region will be back on track for 4.2 million visitors and US$4 billion in tourism revenue.

He said that there is a opportunity in crisis and despite the devastating impact of the pandemic on global tourism economies, as plans to rebuild come into actions, the island can re-imagine the industry and create a tourism product that is safe, inclusive, resilient and sustainable.