Jamaica Reports 7 Percent Increase in Early December Visitors

Jamaica Reports 7 Percent Increase in Early December Visitors

Jamaica recorded a 7 percent increase in overnight tourist arrivals in the first two weeks of December, while welcoming 12,000 cruise passengers in Montego Bay and Ocho Rios this week, renewing optimism for a successful winter tourism season, said Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett. Quoted in local press reports, Bartlett predicted a 5 percent increase in winter season arrivals compared with the same period in 2009.

Bartlett said the robust cruise passenger total sets the stage for the 2011 opening of the Falmouth cruise port, which will host 7,000 vacationers per call. Jamaica this week also announced changes to its Tourist (Duty Free) Shopping System Act, which now allows incoming visitors to make purchases at duty free shops at Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport. The new policy will enable Jamaica “to be known as a shopping destination,” said Bartlett in an interview in the Jamaica Observer.