Jamaica is poised for its next tier

Forvdecades we measured success by how many visitors we welcomed. The question now is: How much value does each visit create for the guest, investor, and Jamaicans? Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has framed Tourism 3.0 in exactly these terms — a shift from a visitor economy to a value economy.

The numbers make the case. In 2025, Jamaica welcomed 3.7 million visitors, 2.6 million of them stopovers, and earned roughly US$4 billion.

Hurricane Melissa explains much of the decline from 2024, but it does not explain the figure that should concern us most — average spending per visitor per night held flat at US$192. In 2019, it was US$168. In 2022, it was US$180. In six years, the value of a Jamaican visitor night has risen by about 14 per cent.