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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Jamaica’s tourism traffic bounces 17%

March 9, 2026 by
Tourist traffic through Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport, bounced 17 percent in February over January, this year, with Kingston’s Norman Manley airport also recording a rise over January, data released by Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico operators of both ports of entry, reveal.

The Montego Bay airport processed 274,500 incoming and outgoing passengers, down by 31.4 percent from 400,100 in 2025, representing a 17 percent improvement over the 37.7 percent decline for January.  For the year to date, traffic dropped 34.7 percent to 559,000 from 856,300 in the prior year.
The decline for Kingston was moderate, with only a 2.1 percent slippage to 119,200 passengers from 121,900 in 2025 and for the year to date, traffic through the Norman Manley airport dipped 5.1 percent year to date, to 274,200 versus 288,900 in 2025.

In December last year, traffic through both airports dropped by 43.8 percent in the case of Montego Bay and Kingston, 2.7 percent, with the latest data showing an accelerated rebound.

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Jamaica tourism back on growth path

September 16, 2025 by
Tourist traffic passing through Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport increased 5.3% in August, compared to August 2024, according to data released by Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, operators of the Montego Bay and Kingston international airports reported.

According to the airport operators, 447,300 passengers were processed by Sangster International Airport in August this year, up from 424,800 in August last year. The gains in the last 8 months virtually wipes out the losses in the early months of the year, with 3.5615 million passengers, a 1.4 percent fall, compared to the 3.6105 million for the similar period in 2024.

Traffic passing through Kingston’s Norman Manley Airport was flat with 199,000 in both periods, while year-to-date, traffic rose 7.2% to 1.2723 million from 1.1873 million in 2024.

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Tourist arrivals to Jamaica steady in June

July 7, 2025 by
Passenger traffic coming into Jamaica in June was likely stable compared to June 2024, data released by Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, the operators of Sangster and Norman Manley International Airports, suggests.

Passengers traffic passing through Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay during June this year fell by 8,500, a fall of 1.9 percent, with 438,900 incoming and outgoing passengers compared to 447,400 in June 2024.

The Montego Bay fall was almost fully made up by Kingston’s increase of 7,700 passengers, an increase of 5.3 percent to 152,200 from 144,500 in 2024. Passenger traffic through Boscobel’s Fleming International Airport, with daily arrivals from the USA in 2025 compared with twice-weekly service last year, is not in the above numbers. Boscobel’s passenger traffic could result in an overall increase in arrivals to the country in June.
For the six months to June, 5.1 percent or 138,700 fewer passengers passed through the Montego Bay airport, with 2.6 million passengers, down from 2.74 million in 2024.  The Montego Bay fall was well short of the increase of 79,900 passengers in Kingston, which increased 8.6 percent to 881,700 from 811,800.

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Jamaica Tourist arrivals settling  

June 10, 2025 by
Passengers passing through the Montego Bay, Sangster International Airport in May 2025, is showing signs of improvement, with 395,400 incoming and outgoing passengers, a fall of just 1.6 percent from the 401,700 in 2024. Year to date, a decline of 5.7 percent took place, with a total pass through of 2,164,800 passengers, down from 2,295,000 in 2024.

Kingston Normal Manley Airport, the smaller of the two, continues to lead with an increase of 4.8 percent in May, to 146,300 versus 139,700 in May 2024 and an increase of 9.5 percent year to date, with 729,300 passengers up from 666,200 in 2024. The increased traffic in May amounts to 6,600 passengers, more than the 5,300 decline in Montego Bay.  

The preliminary terminal passenger traffic figures were released by Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, operators of both airports.

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Pressure not easing on Jamaica’s tourism

April 8, 2025 by
Jamaica’s tourism sector continues to experience downward pressure for the third month this year, according to data released by Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, operators of the country’s major airports.

According to the company, preliminary data of terminal passenger traffic showed a 7.7 percent decline for March 2025, resulting in 40,000 fewer incoming and outgoing passengers, with 482,600 passengers passing through the airport, compared with 522,800 in March 2024. The much smaller Norman Manley International Airport had a 7.7 percent increase of 10,000 passengers to 139,200 from 129,300 in 2023.

For the year to March, Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport processed 129,000 fewer passengers than for the same period last year, with a total of 1,338,900 this year compared with 1,457,300 for the similar period in 2024. The Norman Manley Airport saw 9.4 percent more travelers or 37,600 passing through the airport than in 2023 when 391,400 passed through compared with 428,000 in March this year.

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 Declining Tourist arrivals slow in November

December 7, 2024 by
International Terminal Passengers climbed 7.8% at the Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport in November to 132,800 from 123,200 in the same month in 2023 and for the first 11 months of the year passenger traffic inched 0.5 percent higher to 1.6 million from 1.59 million in 2023, data from Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, operators of the two major international airports in Jamaica disclosed.

Developments for the major tourist entry point into the island continue to be negative, days away from the start of the winter tourist season. For the year to date, traffic declined 2.7 percent to 4.59 million incoming and outgoing passengers from 4.72 million last year, helped by a 7.4 percent drop in November to 373,900 from 403,600 last year. Importantly, the decline has slowed from October, with an 8.8 percent decline and September 11.9 percent.
Some developments were key to the decline, starting in April this year, with a 4.5 percent fall in traffic through Montego Bay. Mentioned was made of travel advisory out of the US market, but importantly, Easter a high level travel time, came in late March in 2024 compared with the start of the second week in April 2023. More importantly, the passage of Hurricane Beryl and continuous rains since and the holding of the elections in the USA would have kept many potential travellers from vacationing until after the high level rains and the November for elections workers.  Importantly, Jamaica was not the only country with falling passenger traffic within the region.

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Tourism growth flounders will hit GDP

July 14, 2024 by

The Jamaican economy is set to suffer a major setback in the second quarter with tourist traffic to the island falling according to preliminary data of visitor traffic through the country’s two international airports.
Passenger traffic through Sangster’s International Airport in Montego Bay in June slipped marginally from 448,500 last year to 447,400 which dragged the six months performance to an increase of just 3.2 percent to 2,742,400 from 2,656,800 in 2023, while Kingston Norman Manley dipped 2.2 percent to 144,400 from 147,700 in 2023, and declined 2.3 percent to 810,600 from 829,500.
While the critical arrivals grew attractively in the first quarter, data released by Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacífico shows Montego Bay enjoying an 8 percent rise with Kingston flat, Montego Bay suffered a 4.2 percent fall in April and was effectively flat in May. Kingston was down7.7 percent in April and 1.1 percent in May. The decline affects the sector and will spill over into support industries such as transportation, agriculture, manufacturing and utilities and also affect communities that cater to the sector.

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Jamaica tourist arrivals hit the skids

June 10, 2024 by

After a robust start to stopover arrivals in the early months of the year, data on passenger traffic passing through Jamaica’s two major international airports declined in May, with passenger traffic passing through the Sangster International Airport slipping from 402,000 in May last year to 401,500, down 0.3 percent.
The airport traffic although not telling the full picture of stopover arrivals, is a good barometer of likely outcomes showing that Sangster International Airport which accounts for around 85 percent of visitor arrivals is up just 3.9 percent to 2,294,800 for the year to date.
This is the second month of decline for Montego Bay that had a 4.2 percent reduction to 435,500 in April from 454,500 for the same period last year, bringing the year to date increase then to 4.8 percent to 1.8928 million.
Traffic through Kingston’s Norman Manley continues the decline since the start of the year, with a fall of 1.1 percent to 139,900 compared to 141,500, with traffic for the first five months of this year, declining by 2.2 percent to 667,300 from 682,300.
The data is taken from a report on airport traffic during May published by Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacifico operators of Jamaica’s two major airports.

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