Tourism Jamaica’s #1US$ earner

Tourism is now Jamaica’s largest source of foreign exchange earnings, with US$2.4 billion pulled in 2015. Inflows from the sector is growing at nearly twice the pace of remittance inflows, now Jamaica’s second largest, with inflows of US$2.23 billion in 2015, according to data form Jamaica’s central bank, Bank of Jamaica.
During the period of 2008 to 2015, the three main areas of foreign exchange earnings have switched positions between themselves, but since 2012 tourism has been the number one source of inflows and is widening the gap.
Tourism brought in US$1.98 billion in 2008 and remittances US$2 billion. Remittances grew by 10 percent to US$2.2 billion in 2015 over 2008, while tourism was up 18.8 percent to US$2.4 billion. In 2015 tourism inflows grew by 6.4 percent in contrast to the 3 percent increase in remittances. In 2014 tourism inflows grew by a strong 8.7 percent over 2013.
While remittances and tourism have been growing since 2008, exports of goods have gone in the opposite direction with 2015 exports falling to US$1.27 billion versus US$2.974 billion for 2008 for a decline of 54 percent. If the growth trend in tourism inflows continue at the 2015 pace, the sector will exceed the earnings by exports of goods in 2008 by 2018.