JTB Shared Breaking News with the Press at JAPEX

The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) is reporting a whopping 16 percent increase in arrivals from this time last year.

The impressive increase for the first 11 days of May was announced by Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett during a roundtable discussion at the annual Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX) in Montego Bay.

“There are a lot of negatives (in the tourism industry lately),” Bartlett said during the discussion at the Sugar Mill, a restaurant at the Half Moon resort. “But we are showing that we can turn some of these negatives into positives.”

Bartlett told members of the media that legislation that would allow gaming in Jamaica is currently being drafted and is expected to pass within the next few weeks.

Once it does, two licenses for casinos will be awarded to the Palmyra, A Solis Resort & Spa and the Harmony Cove resort, both in Montego Bay. Bartlett told Travel Agent a while back that three more licenses will be handed out after the first two are finalized.

JTB Director John Lynch told media that Wayne Cummings was reelected Monday as the president of the Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association. Cummings first took office in 2007.