Visitor arrivals dropped 7.7 percent at Kingston’s Norman Manley to 135,100 in April this year from 146,500 in 2023 and down 2.6 percent to 526,500 from 540,600 for the first four months of the year.
Montego Bay Sangster International Airport had a 4.2 percent reduction to 435,500 from 454,500 for the similar period in 2023 and rose 4.8 percent to 1.8928 million from 1.8055 million.
The data was taken from a report on airport traffic during April published by Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacifico operators of Jamaica’s two major airports.
The monthly decline may be due to a shift in the Easter holiday period to the close of March this year would have pushed stopover traffic with March compared with 2023 with Easter coming at the end of the first week in April.
Note that the numbers represent incoming and outgoing traffic as such actual arrivals would approximate half of the amounts reported above.
April’s Jamaica Tourist arrivals drop
Tourist arrivals continue to slow
Tourist arrivals to Jamaica are up solidly for the year to November with an increase, of around 20 percent, but the rate of growth has slowed considerably since April with an increase in stopover arrivals of 14 percent compared with 28 percent in March and 44 percent for the first quarter. By July the rate of growth dropped to 12 percent for the month as growth starts returning to more sustainable levels.
Recent data emanating out of Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay shows 403,600 passengers being handled in November, 7.3 percent more than the 376,100 handled in November 2022, with the pace of growth down from 10.3 percent in October and the Kingston Airport processing 123,000 passengers, 6.6 percent fewer than the 131,700 handled in November 2022. Passenger activity in Kingston declined for a third consecutive month with October down 8.9 percent compared with October 2022.
For the first eleven months of 2023, the Montego Bay Airport processed 20.4 percent more passengers, with 3,918,900 being handled in 2022 moving to 4,716,800 in 2023. Total passenger movements grew by 13.5 percent at the Norman Manley International Airport from 1,402,300 in 2022 to 1,592,000 in the first eleven months of 2023.
Tourism recovery continues for Jamaica
The recovery of tourist traffic to Jamaica from the closure of the industry in 2020, continues robustly with early data showing Montego Bay enjoying a 15.5 percent bounce in passenger movements through the Sangster International Airport, with 469,700 passenger passing through that airport in August this year, compared with 405,800 in 2022 with a 24.4 percent jump for the year to date to 3.64 million, up from 2,925 in 2022 for the same period.
Traffic in August for Kingston was up just 6 percent to 195,600 compared with 184,600 in 2022 and is up 21.7 percent to 1.207 million from 991,700 in 2022. Data was taken from the release of traffic for the various airports operated by Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacifico, who are operators of both Jamaican Airports.
Traffic to Jamaica is up 15 percent over 2019, the last full year with no disruption with some 406,993 passengers passing through the Sangster Airport while Kingston is 5.4 down on the 205,860 passengers in 2019. Sangster’s, with 3.41 million passing through the airport just under 7 percent ahead of 2019 and the 1.33 million traversing the Kingston down 9 percent below the 2019 numbers.
Passenger movements represent incoming and outgoing passengers, roughly half represent incoming, with those passing through Sangster’s representing the majority of visitors to the island as such it provides a good proxy for stopover visitor arrivals to the country.
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.
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.
Tourism arrivals 95% of 2019 for Jamaica
The Jamaica Tourist Board’s last release of tourism arrivals to the country is for March this year, nearly three months away, unacceptable for one of the country’s leading industries.
Tourism arrivals in April & May down just 5% on 2019
Data for March from the Jamaica Tourist Board shows the county welcomed 215,789 stopover visitors, some 29 percent less than March 2019. The Tourist Board is yet to release April numbers, but data out of Sangster International Airport suggests that arrivals in April exceeded those for March, to be the best month for the year to date. Indications are that tourist arrivals could be off by just 5 percent from 2019, the year before the closure of the sector back in 2020. Similarly, data indicate arrivals through the Montego Bay airport in May are 9 percent less than in April, some 5 percent lower than in May 2019.
The April and May figures mark a major about turn for the sector. January saw 131,730 stopover arrivals, down 45 percent from the 216,509 they came in 2019 the JTB data shows, with 162,882 arrivals for February, down 36 percent from the 220,046 in 2019.
Jamaica’s tourism recovery slowed in January & February
Jamaica’s tourism recovery slowed in the first two months of 2022, as indicated by airport traffic passing through the country’s two international Airports shows.
The Sangster International Airport handled a total of 274,700 incoming and outgoing passengers in February 2022, just 2.7 percent ahead of the 267,300 in January 2022, but total passenger movements in February 2022 was 67.6 percent of the 406,400 handled in February 2019 and 64.3 percent of the 426,700 passengers handled in February 2020. The Montego Bay Airport handled just 75,600 passenger movements in February 2021, following the reopening of the country to international travel in June of 2020.
For the first two months of 2022, total passenger movements through the Sangster International Airport, increased 209.2 percent, from 175,300 in 2021 to 542,000 and representing 64 percent of the 846,200 passenger movements handled in the first two months of 2019, according to Aeroportuario del Pacifico, which manages the airports in Montego Bay and Kingston, Tourismanalytics.com report shows.
The Kingston Norman Manley International Airport recorded a decrease of 15 percent in February this year from January, from 91,200 to 77,500 total incoming and outgoing passengers in February 2022, well off the 122,600 passenger movements in February 2020, but up from just 30,100 passengers in February 2021. For the first two months of 2022 total passengers passing through Kingston grow by 114.1 percent, from 78,800 in 2021 to 168,700 in 2022.
The growth for the island slowed markedly from a fall of 20.6 percent in December last year and 25 percent in November compared to 2019. Arrivals and departures of 281,115 in December 2019 slipped to 223,333 in December 2021, but last year December was well up on 2020 at just 90,164.
Sounds out of the industry suggest that March is performing very well. “The tourism sector is back on track with another record weekend of stopover arrivals, with close to 35,000 visitors coming through the Sangster and Norman Manley international airports combined, between Thursday, March 10 and Sunday, March 13,” Minister Bartlett stated recently.
This number tops the combined 30,000 arrivals the previous weekend, with Sangster International accounting for 27,000 visitors. Jamaica continues to be the destination of choice in the Caribbean and based on projections, Minister Bartlett says “we expect that this March will be the strongest in terms of arrivals since the pandemic disrupted worldwide tourism in 2020 and we expect in excess of 200,000 coming to Jamaica for the month.”
Jamaica Tourism arrivals jump 39%
Stopover visitor arrivals to Jamaica appear set to increase by 40 percent over May numbers, data compiled from reports of passenger arrivals disclosed by the Sangster International Airport suggest. According to the data, 39 percent more passenger arrivals came into the country in June compared to May this year.
May saw a 44 percent spike in passenger arrivals through the airport for the second city of the country over April, an indication that visitor arrivals should hit 105,000 in May, up from 82,702 in April. June arrivals through the airport, topped 142,000 for the first time since the industry opened up for foreign visitors in June last year. June this year ended with 142,727 arrivals for the month, amounting to 61 percent of the June 2019 numbers of 239,000.
Aircrafts arriving in the country, rose by 5.8 percent in June to 2,490 compared to a 15 percent increase in May with 2,353 units over April, with the trend showing increased passenger load.
July is set to see the total visitors breaking the 200,000 mark for an increase of 40 percent putting it to 76 percent of the July 2019 influx of 270,462.
August could see the industry coming back to the 2019 levels and may well exceed it and possibly suggest full recovery for the industry.
The latest Jamaica Tourist data published is only for April and was published for the public’s use on June 17, more than a month and a half after the month closed. The data for February was even worse coming out on April 27, nearly two months after the close of the month reported on.