“The 2024 end-of-year figures represent increases of 5.3% in visitor arrivals and 3.3% in earnings when compared to 2023 and were achieved despite challenges, including travel advisories, severe weather events and airlift restrictions over two quarters,” Minister Bartlett said.
The 5x5x5 targets were previously set in 2016 and were on the verge of being achieved when the COVID-19 pandemic literally wiped-out global travel, forcing Jamaica and other tourist destinations to start all over from ground zero in rebuilding the industry.
Addressing Sandals Resorts International’s 2025 Global Sales Meeting at its Sandals South Coast resort yesterday (January 9), Minister Bartlett underlined the importance of tourism to Jamaica and the wider Caribbean as he lauded Sandals as a leading contributor to the industry’s growth in the region.
Describing it as a phenomenal home-grown multi-national corporation, Mr. Bartlett suggested to its executive chairman, Adam Stewart that the time had come for Sandals to spread its wings beyond the Caribbean and become a global brand. He suggested:
“We need to go beyond the Caribbean now because the world is waiting for what you have given to the Caribbean, making it the most tourism-dependent region on planet Earth.”
More than 50% of the Caribbean region’s gross domestic product (GDP) is predicated on tourism and one-in-four of all the workers are employed in the industry and, except for oil in Guyana, “tourism again stands out as the huge driver of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region,” he pointed out. Similarly, locally, “when tourism grows, the economy grows; when tourism contracts, unfortunately the economy also contracts,” he noted.
Having achieved “more in 24,” Minister Bartlett hailed the global Sandals sales force as dedicated professionals united by the purpose of strengthening and growing “the incredible Sandals brand that has become synonymous with Caribbean hospitality.” Underscoring that “Sandals is an integral part of our national identity,” he challenged them “to thrive for 25.”
Ascribing several attributes to Sandals, including its contribution to the Jamaica workforce and supporting farmers and other industries, Minister Bartlett affirmed that “this is what responsible tourism looks like, where success is measured not just in occupancy rates alone but by investing, and people are at the heart of the tourism industry.”
In that regard, he assured that notwithstanding the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning and the wonderful things technology can do to change the way things are, “they are going to change it for people, and it is human intelligence that will give efficacy to the changes.” Mr. Bartlett argued that “the type of industry that will survive, whatever transition the world embraces, going forward, is going to be about people and tourism as the industry that is most related to people, will survive.”
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