Stopover visitor arrivals to Jamaica fell 80.7 percent in January 2021 to just 43,831, a decrease of 183,369 compared to 227,200 recorded in the same month in 2020. The January numbers are well below arrivals in December last year with 90,164 stopovers that fell 68 percent with 190,951 fewer arrivals than the 281,115 recorded in December 2019.
Stopover arrivals from the United States fell 73 percent in January 2021, with 38,500 arrivals than the 143,460 arrivals in January 2020, with all US marketing regions recording decreases. Arrivals from the Canadian market dipped 93 percent, with just 3,274, down 42,608 from 45,922 visitors in January 2020. Visitor arrivals from the Caribbean region were down 79.5 percent to 1,070 compared to 5,217 in January 2019, while Latin American arrivals fell 89 percent with 565 stopovers compared to 5,219 in January 2020. Just a sprinkling of arrivals came from the United Kingdom and Europe in 2021.
While the numbers were down, there was some good news as the lent of stay was up sharply by 60 percent over 2020, with Non‐ Resident Jamaicans jumping 65 percent. The increased length of stay suggests that individual visitor spend could be close to twice what it was in 2020.
According to data from the Jamaica Tourist Board, “the average length of stay of Foreign National arrivals in January 2021 was 13.8 nights, compared to 8.6 nights in January 2020. The average length of stay in hotels was 7.9 nights in January 2021, compared to 6.4 nights in January 2020. The average length of stay of Non‐Resident Jamaican arrivals in January 2021 was 27.9 nights, compared to 17 in January 2020. The average length of stay in hotels in January 2021 was 9.8 nights, compared to 7.3 nights in January 2020.”
Data out of Aeroportuario del Pacifico suggests that arrivals for February could be worse than in January with an 82 percent fall in arrivals through Sangster International Airport and 75 through Normal Manley compared to 2020, with the total arrival numbers being well down from January
Looking forward, word out of the industry is that bookings are in the 70 to 80 percent region for the summer months as the vaccine is rolled out over the United States Jamaica’s largest market for visitors.
Sharp drop in January visitor arrivals
March 24, 2021 by
Tourism drives Jamaica’ GDP to 4%
March 25, 2019 by
Big increase in visitor arrivals in the first quarter of 2019 set to give Jamaica’s GDP a big lift in the quarter.
While the category of Hotels and Restaurants that tourism sector falls only accounts for around 7% of total GDP, the huge increase in stop over arrivals being enjoyed by the sector in the March quarter, will most likely more than compensate for its size in GDP computation and could add as much as one percentage point, to the quarter’s growth.
According to the Jamaica Tourist Board, “stopover arrivals in January 2019 were 216,509 an increase of 11.3% or 21,900 additional arrivals over the 194,609 recorded in January 2018.” Importantly, the arrivals from USA, the country with the high tourism spend is up 20 percent and would have contributed more in inflows as a result of the higher spend even as number of nights they stayed slipped a bit form 2018.
Construction sector is also expecetd to continue to lift the economy in 2019.
February, is up by 14.9 percent, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett told The Sunday Gleaner and reported by that publication on March 3. The Jamaica Observer stated, “data provided by Delano Seiveright, communications strategist and advisor in the Ministry of Tourism, show that total visitor arrivals for the period March 1-17 amounted to 148,052, a 24.8 percent increase over the 118,597 recorded for the same period last year. Breaking down the numbers, Seiveright said that for the period March 1-17 this year Montego Bay welcomed 125,069 visitors, an increase of 22.7 percent compared to 101,967 for the same period last year, while the numbers for Kingston were 22,983, up 38.2 percent over the same period last year.”