Tourism traffic into Jamaica slowed in March compared with the earlier months of 2024, data for tourist arrivals and departures for Sangster and Norman Manley International airports show.
The data while not the exact outcome of stopover tourist arrivals to the country, provides a good indication of tourist traffic flows into the country.
Traffic through the Montego Bay Airport for March 2024, was up 6.4 percent, with 522,900 passengers passing through up from 491,300 handled in March 2023 data from Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico operators of both airports show.
For the first quarter of 2024, Sangster International Montego Bay Airport processed 1,457,300 passengers, a solid 7.9 percent more than the 1,351,000 passengers in the first quarter of 2023.
But Norman Manley Airport suffered a 4.6 percent decline in passenger traffic in March 2024, to 129,700 passengers from 136,000 passengers in March 2023.
For the first three months of 2024, Kingston Airport saw total passengers handled, decrease by 0.6 percent, to 392,000 in 2024 falling from 394,300 in the 2023 first quarter.
The data was taken from Tourism Analytics.com.
Tourism traffic slows in March
Jamaica’s visitor arrivals climb
Stopover visitor arrivals into Montego Bay through Sangster International Airport, rose nearly 10 percent in January this year versus last year while activity for the Norman Manley Airport just increased by 1.6 percent over 2023.
Tourists enjoying the Jamaican offerings and helping the sector to a near 9 percent jump in visitors in January 2024.
According to the data released by the operators of Jamaica’s two main international airports, Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacifico, the Montego Bay based Sangster International Airport handled 9.6 percent more passengers in January this year than it did in 2023. The number of arriving and departing passengers climbed to 491,000 from 449,000 in January 2023, while the Kingston Norman Manley Airport had 1.6 percent more passengers using the airport in January this year, some 148,300, up from 146,000 in January 2023.
The increase is a positive development for Jamaica which relies heavily on the tourist industry for economic development and foreign exchange.
Sharp jump in tourist arrivals in July
Visitor arrival numbers passing through the Montego Bay Sangster International Airport jumped sharply by 19.4 percent to 513,700 in July this year compared with 430.400 in 2022, Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, operators of both local international airports reported.
The July 2023 numbers also jumped 15 percent over the 447,934 passengers using the airport in July 2019, the last year that the data was not affected by the disruption to the industry by Cocid19 pandemic. Passenger traffic through the Montego Bay Airport, for the year to date, is up a solid 25.8 percent to 3.17 million in 2023, over 2.52 million in 2022 and nearly 6 percent up on the 2.998 million in 2019.
Data from Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico also revealed that Kingston had a 2.9 percent increase in traffic to 181,700 from 176,600 in July 2022 and a 13 percent jump on the 204,948 that passed through the system in July 2019. For 2023 to date, 25.3 percent more passengers used the airport facilities to hit 1.011 million from 807,200 in 2022, but 5 percent less than the 1.06 million in 2019.
Tourist arrivals continue to rise for Jamaica
Tourist arrivals continue to rise for Jamaica, with preliminary data showing an increase in June and the year to date compared with last year and 2019, the last year with uninterrupted movement of visitors prior to the current year, data put out by Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacifico, operators of both of the country’s major international airports in Jamaica, show.
Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport handled 448,500 passengers, an increase of 14.1 percent over the 393,100 passengers processed in June 2022 and for the six months to June, 2,656,800 travellers, 27.2 percent more than 2.09 million in 2022. Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport processed 147,7000 passengers, an increase of 13.5 percent over the 130,200 passengers in June 2022 and for the six months to June, 829,500 travellers, 31.5 percent more than 630,600 in 2022.
Compared to 2019, the last year with uninterrupted business, Sangster Airport handled 4 percent more than 2019 and Normal Manley 3 percent less than in 2019, for an average increase of 2.2 percent.
The latest data out of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) shows that stopover arrivals are up just 3.6 percent over 2019 for the first three months of 2023 and up 43.8 percent over 2022 to 733,982 arrivals. The JTB report for 2022 shows stopover arrivals up 78 percent in the June quarter compared with 2021 but down 3.3 percent compared with 2019, representing a significant improvement over the 28 percent decline in the first quarter compared with that of 2019.
Cruise travel was flat in March, according to JTB data, compared with 2019, but up 261 percent over March 2022. Cruise arrivals for the three months period are up 382 percent over 2022 to 477,502 visitors but down 24 percent compared with 2019.
Tourist arrivals climb for Jamaica
Tourist arrivals into Jamaica continue to grow, according to data released by Grupo Aeroportuario operators of international airports in Montego Bay and Kingston, with arrivals in May probably rising 13 percent above those for 2022, with 544,000 passengers processed, up from 481,400 and for the year to date an increase of 32 percent to 2.89 million from 2.196 million in 2022.
This is the clearest sign of a boom time in Jamaica’s tourism industry.
Montego Bay, the gateway with the highest number of visitors, had a bounce of 10.2 percent to 403,000 incoming and outgoing passengers, up from 366,000 and for the year to date, an increase of 30.2 percent to 2.208 million from 1.696 million in 2022 to May,
Passengers passing through the Norman Manley airport in Kingston jumped 21.9 percent to 141,100 from 115,800 and year to date, an increase of 36.2 percent to 681,700 from 500,400.
Tourism bounce in April for Jamaica
Jamaica enjoyed a continued bounce in visitor arrivals in April this year compared to the year ago, data released by Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, operators of the Sangster and Norman Manley international airports in Jamaica shows. The report shows preliminary terminal passenger traffic figures for April 2023, with Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay enjoying a 13 percent increase and Kingston Norman Manley international airports with a 25.7 percent bounce compared to 2022.
Aeroplanes line up at Sangster International Airport in January.
Montego Bay handled 454,400 passengers in April this year, up 13 percent over 402,200 for April 2022; the April 2023 passenger movement bettered the 424,700 in 2019 by 7 percent.
For the four months to April, 1,805,400 passengers passed through the airport, up 35.7 percent over the 1,330,300 for the same period in 2022 and just 2.4 percent over the 1,805,400 passengers in 2019.
Norman Manley International Airport processed 25.8 percent more passengers than the 116,400 in April 2022, with 146,500 passengers passing through the capital’s airport, marginally higher than 145,695 in April 2019. For the year to April, 540,600 passengers utilized the airport, 40.5 percent above the 384,700 that passed through in 2022 but slightly below the 548,555 handled in 2019.
While Montego Bay had fewer passengers than the 491,300 in March this year, Kingston beat out the 136,000 handled in March.
Tourist arrivals jumped 32% in March for Jamaica
Tourist arrivals to Jamaica probably rose 32 percent in March this year over 2022 and are set to deliver a 4 percent increase to 283,000 visitors over 271,742 stopover arrivals in March 2019, data released for Montego Bay’s Sangster’s International Airport suggest.
The data also indicates that arrivals for the 2023 first quarter could result in stopover arrivals to the country rising a solid 45 percent to 742 thousand versus 510 thousand for the same period in 2022 and 5 percent above 2019.
The above is deduced from 491,300 total incoming and outgoing passengers in March 2023 compared with 385,800 in March 2022, Sangster’s International Airport, according to Aeroportuario del Pacifico, airport manages the international airports in Kingston and Montego Bay.
The total number of passengers at Montego Bay Airport increased by 27.3 percent in March this year, from 385,800 in March 2022 to 491,300. By comparison, 491,800 passengers passed through the airport in March 2019.
In the first three months of 2022, the Montego Bay Airport handled 45.6 percent more passengers than the 928,100 in the first three months of 2022 to 1,351,000 in 2023.
Kingston had a greater pick up in passenger movements than Montego Bay, with Norman Manley Airport handling 136,000 passengers in March this year, 38.1 percent more than the 98,500 handled in March 2022.
In the first three months of 2023, Kingston’s Airport saw total passenger movements grow by 46.9 percent, from 268,400 in 2022 to 394,200.
Record tourist arrivals for Jamaica
Jamaica tourist arrivals are now running at record levels since August this year, with data showing the country enjoying four consecutive months of arrivals exceeding similar months in 2019, the previous best period. Airport passenger movements through the Sangster International Airport are up an average of 12 percent for September to November.
If the recent trend continues, it would mean that stopover arrivals should be in the region of 3 million next year, up from 2,680,920 in 2019 and would exceed those in 2022 of around 2.5 million by a solid 20 percent or so, with the winter months enjoying much higher levels of growth as those moths were down sharply compared with 2019.
Tourist arrivals into Jamaica continued the significant improvement over 2019, the best year for tourist arrivals for the country, with traffic through the Montego Bay Sangster International Airport rising 8 percent over 2019 and 38.7 percent over 2021 as 375,900 passengers passed through the airport this year, up from 271,000 in 2021 and 348,200 total passengers arriving and departing in 2019. For the eleven months of 2022, airport arrivals in the west of the country amounted to 3,918,700 compared to 2,240,600 and 2021 and 8 percent less than the 4,208,100 that passed through the airport in 2019.
Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston had 131,700 passengers passing through the airport in November this year and up a solid 68.8 percent above the 78,000 passing through in 2021 and 1.1 percent less than 133,200 passengers passing through in 2019. Kingston’s Norman Manley airport handled 1,398,800 passengers for the 11 months to November, 93.8 percent above the 721,800 handled in 2021 but down 17 percent on the 1,680,477 movements in 2019.
Jamaica tourists’ arrivals 17% upon 2019
Tourist arrivals to Jamaica likely jumped 17 percent in September 2022 over 2019, the best September on record, data out of Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay indicate. According to a Tourismanalytics.com report, the total number of passengers handled by the airport in the month was 300,600, up from the 256,900 passengers passing through the airport in September 2019 and well up on the 191,000 passengers dealt with in September 2021.
Growth in tourism expected in 2023
At the same time, 137,000 passengers passed through the Norman Manley airport in Kingston in September, up from only 73,000 passengers in September 2021 and marginally down 3 percent from the 141,029 processed in September 2019.
Total passenger movements for Montego Bay increased 83.2 percent, from 1,761,000 in 2021 to 3,225,800 in the first nine months this year and was 89.1 percent of the 3,622,100 passengers handled in the same period in 2019.
Kingston Airport handled processed 99.6 percent more passengers for the first nine months of 2022, an increase from 565,900 in 2021 to 1,129,400 or 20 percent less than the 1,410,142 passengers handled in 2019.
Jamaica tourist arrivals above 2019?
Growth in tourism in August 2022 exceeds 2019
Tourist arrivals to Jamaica may have exceeded 2019 numbers for the first time since the tourist industry suffered a major decline following the advent of Covid-19 in 2020, data from Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay shows.
The airport handled 1.1 percent more than the 401,500 passengers in August 2019 bringing total passenger movements in August 2022 to 405,800, which was 5.7 percent fewer than the 430,300 handled in July this year and was 2.9 percent fewer than the 443,100 passengers handled in July 2019. The Airport handled 294,100 passengers in August 2021.
The Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica handled 184,400 total passengers in August this year, an increase of 4.6 percent over July and almost twice the numbers in August last of 97,300 passengers. Traffic in August 2022 increased by 4.6 percent from 176,300 total movements in July 2022 to 184,400 in August 2022.
For the first eight months of 2022, Sangster International handled 86.3 percent more passengers, from 1,569,900 in 2021 to 2,925,100. The number of passengers this year to August is 87 percent of the 3,365,200 passengers handled in the similar period of 2019. Through the first eight months of 2022 Kingston’s Airport saw total passenger movements grow by 101.3 percent, from 492,900 in 2021 to 992,100 in the first eight months of 2022.
