Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, has revealed that in an effort to boost the Tourism Sector, Jamaica will be targeting 3 million cruise ship visitors by 2025.

This declaration was made during the Jamaica Vacations retreat (JAMVAC) at the Royalton Blue waters in Trelawny.

Bartlett noted that having built the infrastructure to facilitate such a move, further work will also be done in the marketing arena to accomplish this objective.

“The energy that both the Jamaica Tourist Board and JAMVAC will be putting into the market will be to position Jamaica, not just as a Caribbean destination of choice, but a destination that is attractive to people in Europe in particular, as well as Asia and the Middle East,” he added.

Bartlett also noted that JAMVAC will continue working closely with the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), and the Tourism Development Company (TPDco) to achieve this goal.

Additionally, the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) has reported that cruise ship passengers totalled 8,379 from five ships for the months of August and September, relative to none during the corresponding period of 2020.

The PIOJ also outlined that Real Value Added for Hotels and Restaurant industry was estimated to have grown by 114.7 percent for the July to September period of 2021 when compared to the same period of 2020.

Furthermore, stop-over visitor arrivals for the months of July and August 2021 increased by 293.3 percent over the same period for 2020.