Jamaica
News - Real Estate - Tourism (March
31, 2005)
Record-breaking tourist arrivals in 2004 for Jamaica
Some 2.5 million
tourists arrived in Jamaica in 2004, the highest number of
visitors to the island in one year, according to the Planning
Institute of Jamaica’s (PIOJ) Economic Update and Outlook Report
for the October to December 2004 period.
This figure reflects an increase
of 1.3 per cent over the corresponding 2003 period. In addition,
stopover arrivals for the year went up by 4.8 per cent, relative
to 2003. Of that number, 71 per cent came from the United States
of America, 7.0 per cent from Canada and 17.0 per cent from the
United Kingdom and Europe combined.
The report also indicated that a
total of 1.099773 cruise passengers visited the island, down 2.9
per cent compared with the corresponding period in 2003. This
however reflected the negative impact of Hurricanes Charley and
Ivan.
In addition total visitor
arrivals for December grew by 4.5 percent, which is as a result of
the increase in cruise passenger arrivals to the island for the
month, the report indicated.
For the period under review,
arrivals of tourists from Europe increased by 6.8 percent while a
total of 27,800 visitors from Canada visited the island,
representing a 7.5 per cent increase. The report further indicated
that, the average length of stay was 10.3 nights per stopover
visitor compared with the 10.2 nights for the corresponding period
of 2003.
Projected visitor expenditure
was US$1 364.3 million, an increase of US$39.2 million relative to
the calendar year 2003. In the meantime, real Gross Domestic
Product for hotels, restaurants clubs increased by 4.6 percent
over the period, January to December 2003.
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