Tourism numbers continue to be on the rise for Jamaica, with May likely to reach 120,000 stopover arrivals or 57 percent of the 210,664 stopover arrivals in May 2019, representing the best month’s performance since the closure of the country’s borders last year March, but industry experts say the increase is coming, with steeply discounted rates.
Tourism is Jamaica’s largest earner of foreign exchange.
Arriving passengers passing through the Sangster’s International airport surged 44 percent in May over April’s arrivals to 108,320, suggesting that stopover arrivals for the country will reach the 120,000 mark.
The last report of total visitor arrivals put out by the Jamaica Tourist Board puts stopover arrivals in March 2021 at 73,646, up 68 percent over February. The increase is close to the arrival numbers through Sangster’s Airport with March this year, showing a 77 percent increase in airport arrivals through Montego Bay over February.
April enjoyed a 12.5 percent bounce in arrivals through the Sangster airport over March that had 75,139 arrivals, suggesting that April’s stopover visitor arrivals should reach around 82,000, well off the 232,834 attained in April 2019.
The trends suggest that arrivals for June could reach approximately 65 percent of the 2019 stopover arrivals of 238,888, with strong prospects of the rest of summer numbers bouncing as well.
Industry sources informed IC Insider.com that things are picking up in the sector, but there is unevenness as to who are the beneficiaries of the rebound. Hotels have been involved in steep discounting of rates to attract visitors and the big named chains are getting a much bigger share of the pie than the smaller hotels. 
For example, data out of the sector indicates that hotels with 100 rooms or more are said to have had occupancy levels an average of just over 50 percent compared to smaller hotels under 100 rooms with just 37 percent for May, while the expectation for June is 60 percent occupancy, with smaller hotels expecting just 35 percent, July is expected to have similar levels as June.
The curfew hours have played a big role in the grave disparity, the source indicates, in the vast gap in occupancy between the smaller and the larger properties. The larger hotels have a lot of activities taking place within their borders compared to smaller ones that guess spend more time outside the properties than inside, with the curfew hours restricting their movements in the night and what they can or cannot do.
