Jamaica tourist arrivals up to 2025 levels but..

November 10, 2026 by
Montego Bay Sangster International Airport processed just 0.9 percent fewer passengers in October this year, with 257,600 passing through Jamaica’s largest airport compared with 259,800 in 2025, the month Hurricane Melissa hit the western end of the country and severely disrupted the tourism sector.

It is unclear what impact the reduction in room count, arising from the closure of a number of hotels since November last year, is playing in the reduced visitor traffic.
While the numbers reflect stability, they are far less than the 319,200 commuters that passed through Montego Bay in October 2024. The 2026 outturn reflects a fall of 19.3 percent, compared with 2025, slightly worse than the decline in September of 17.6 percent. For the ten months to October this year, Sangster processed 23.9 percent less passengers than for 2025 with 3,124,500 versus 4,107,100 in 2025.
Kingston, Norman Manley Airport processed 3.8 percent more passengers this year October with 126,700 that passed through, up from 122,000 in October 2025.  Year to date movements slipped 1.3 percent 1,511,400 from 1,531,800 in 2025. Last year, October, Kingston Norman Manley Airport handled 13.0 percent fewer passengers compared to the previous year, with 121,500 in 2025 vs 139,600 in 2024.

The data was extracted from the website of Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V., operator of both airports.

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Record remittances inflows to Jamaica

October 27, 2026 by
Remittances into Jamaica reached a record $2.42 billion in the first eight months of 2026, up 5.3 percent over the similar period in 2025, after climbing 9.3 percent in August to US$315 million. the country previous highest inflows for the first eight months was US$2,3 billion in 2021, some US$465 million more than the same period in 2020.

According to the data released by the Bank of Jamaica, this year’s inflows are US$122.7 million more than the US$2.299 billion gross inflows into the country for the same period last year.
The country is set to earn US$3.7 billion if growth in gross inflows continues for the remaining months of the year, or 5.8 percent more than the record haul of US$3.497 billion in 2021, the first year, inflows exceeded US$3 billion and US$215 million more than in 2026.
Remittances remain the second-largest source of foreign exchange inflows into the economy, with tourism being the highest.

The 2026 growth was broadly in line with that recorded in Guatemala, up 5.4 percent, but exceeded the rates of growth in El Salvador 4.0 percent and Mexico 2.2 percent, Bank of Jamaica reported.

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Remittances on track for 2026 record

September 24, 2026 by
Jamaica recorded a solid 8.3 percent rise in remittance inflows in July this year, following an increase of US$25 million over July last year, resulting in a record July haul of US$327.5 million and continuing the record-setting trend for the year to date, according to data released by Jamaica’s Central bank, the Bank of Jamaica.

Remittance inflows amount to US$2.107 billion for the year to July 2026, an increase of 4.8 percent after a rise of US$96 million in the seven months to July.  Last year’s inflows fell just US$11 million short of the record inflows of US$3.497 billion in 2021. This year’s net inflows are well ahead of last year’s shortfall; as such, barring any adverse developments, the 2021 record should be history by the end of 2026.

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Bounce in tourist arrivals to Jamaica

September 8, 2026 by
Passenger traffic increased 2.8 percent for Kingston’s Norman Manley International airport, in August over the similar 2025 period, while Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport recorded a decline by 23 percent, for the same. For Montego Bay, the decline reflects an improvement over July that suffered a fall of 26.6 percent, but with a greater passenger count than in August this year.

The number of passengers  travelling via the Sangster International Airport was 344,600, down from 447,400 last year August. For the year to date, 2.63 million passed through the island’s north western airport, 26.2 percent below last year of 3.56 million passengers.

Kingston’s Norman Manley had 205,100 passengers passing through the airport in August, up from 199,200 last year. For the first eight months of the year traffic slipped 1.6 percent to 1.253 million versus 1.273 million in 2025.

The data is published by Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, operators of the Jamaica’s two major airports.

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Best year for remittance inflows   

August 15, 2026 by
Remittance inflows continue to climb for Jamaica, with record June inflows of US$312 million, an increase of US$24.5 million or 8.5 percent over June 2025, data out of Jamaica’s central bank, Bank of Jamaica, (BOJ) show.

According to the BOJ data, there are only 7 other periods when inflows exceeded US$312 million garnered in June. In March 2021, US$328 million in inflows was achieved, with March 2026 delivering US$319 million and July 2022 when inflows totaled US$324 million, the other times were all in December, with December 2021 generating US$322 million, 2022 US$326 million, followed by December 2023 with US$314 million and 2025 US$335 million.
Remittance inflows to Jamaica climbed 4.2 percent to an all-time record high of US$1.78 billion, for 2026 to June, up US$71 million from US$1.71 billion for the same period last year. This year to date increase, puts to the annual outturn at around US$3.6 billion for 2026 and would be the highest on record, beating the long standing record in 2021 inflows of US$3.497 billion.

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Record remittance inflows for Jamaica

July 9, 2026 by

Remittance inflows into Jamaica slipped by a mere half of one percent to US$294.2 million in April this year, down by just US$2.3 million from April 2025, but remain at record levels for the year to date.

Remittance inflows for January to April 2026 continued the positive monthly trend since November last year. Flows to Jamaica amounted to a record US$1.1536 billion, 3.2 percent over the corresponding period in 2025, with earnings of US$1,118 billion.   

The United States of America continues to be the primary source market, accounting for 68.8 per cent of total remittance inflows, with the United Kingdom contributing 11.1 percent, Canada 8.5 percent, and the Cayman Islands 6.4 percent.

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Tourist traffic improvement continues for Jamaica

June 12, 2026 by
Tourist traffic transiting Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport shows a modest improvement in May compared with April, with a fall of 19 percent compared with 22 percent for April, this year over 2025, data released by Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacifico show.

Traffic through Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport dropped by 5.2 percent to 138,700 passengers in May this year, from 146,300 in May 2025. The decline in May compares favourably with a 6 percent fall in April this year, compared with 2025.
For the Year to May, the Montego Bay airport processed 27.3 percent less passengers than last year, with 1,573,000 passing through, versus 2,164,800 in 2025, an improvement over the 29.2 percent fall up to April.
The capital city ended with 699,200 passengers, moving through the Norman Manley International Airport, with a fall of 4.1 percent to 729,300 versus 3.1 percent up to April this year.

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Remittances to Jamaica rise

June 2, 2026 by
Remittance inflows to Jamaica continue to increase, with a rise of 3.9 percent to US$314 million for March, compared with US$302.4 million in same month last year. The growth in March, continues the trend in January and February this year, with increases of 5 and 3.4 percent respectively, data released by Jamaica Central Bank show.

Inflows climbed of 4.1 per cent to US$856 million or an increase of $33.5 million for January to March period this year, over the corresponding period of 2025 that enjoyed inflows of US$822.5 million.

Jamaica missed enjoying record inflows last year when total inflows fell just US$11.4 million short of the record inflows of $3.495 million in 2021, so far total inflows are on track to surpass $3.5 billion this year barring any unforeseen developments and therefore set a new all-time record high.

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Jamaica’s tourism continues to rebound

May 12, 2026 by
Tourist traffic through Jamaica’s largest airport, Montego Bay’s Sangster International,  dropped 22 percent in April this year, to 335.600 from 430,400 passengers in 2025, with a year to date drop of 29.2 percent to 1,252,900 from 1,769,400 passengers last year, data released by Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacifico, operators of Jamaica’s two largest airports, show.

The April numbers represent an improvement over the 25.7 percent fall in March, this year, as well as for the year to date, with a decline for the three months to March of 31 percent. The numbers represent incoming and outgoing passengers and locally based Jamaicans, although not the actual number of tourist traffic, the data provides an accurate proxy for the sector’s performance. Data collated by the Jamaica Tourist Board on the industry are unfortunately only released to the public several months in arrears.

Traffic through Kingston’s Norman Manley dropped 6 percent to 145,700 from 155,000 last and for the year to date it slipped 3.9 percent, from 583,000 to 560,500. Year to date, 414,800 passengers, moved through the country’s capital international airport, with a fall of 3.1 percent versus 428,000 for the same period in 2025.

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Jamaica tourist arrivals bouncing back

April 9, 2026 by
Tourism traffic to Jamaica continues to improve since the passage of Melissa in late 2025, with Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay showing a decline in March of 25.7 percent, with 358,400 passengers passing through the Montego Bay airport compared to 482,600 in 2025, data released by Grrupo Aeroportuario Del Pacifico show.

Kingston Norman Manley Airport has started to reveal positive numbers with a margianal one percent improvement for March, with 140,600 passengers passing through the airport versus 139,200 in the 2025 period and year to date, 414,800 passengers, down 3.1 percent versus 428,000 for the same period in 2025.

The decline in March compares with 31.4 percent fall in February and 34.7 percent for the first two months of the year for Montego Bay and a decline of 2.2 percent for Kingston for February and 5.1 percent for the year to date in February.

Jamaica is not the only destination showing a sharp decline in March for international travel, Mexico Tijuana is down by 16 percent and Puerto Vallarta, a decline of 32 percent.

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