MONTEGO BAY, St James: Minister says 2015 shaping up to be a good year for tourism...Minister says Growth recorded in all main markets; country earns US$ 2.2b in 2014

BY MARK CUMMINGS Editor-at-Large, Western Bureau cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com  Friday, February 06, 2015    

MONTEGO BAY, St James — The island's tourism sector earned US$2.2 billion last year, a 5.8 per cent increase over the corresponding period in 2013, according to Tourism and Entertainment Minister Dr Wykeham McNeill.

Speaking at a media briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister West in Montego Bay yesterday, Dr McNeill stressed that the island's tourism sector continues to experience steady growth.

A Jamaica Observer file photo of
tourists in Falmouth, Trelawny last year.

"Jamaica achieved another milestone in 2014 as the island welcomed over two million stopover visitors, surpassing the historic figure achieved in 2013," the minister told journalists.

He said that, between January and December last year, there were 2,080,181 stopover visitors, an increase of 3.6 per cent over the 2,008,409 stopover visitors recorded for 2013.

"... So, overall, we welcomed 71,772 more visitors than in 2013," said an upbeat tourism minister, adding that, "We saw growth out of all our main source markets".

"Stopover arrivals out of Europe grew by 10.7 per cent, while arrivals out of Canada increased by 5.2 per cent; stopover arrivals out of the United States grew by two per cent overall, with an increase of 5.4 per cent out of the West and 5.6 per cent out of the South," McNeill said, noting that inflows of visitors from Asia also increased by 9.2 per cent. more