Tourism Leads Jamaica Economy

Tourism continues to be the strongest performer in the Jamaican economy, according to the Bank of Jamaica’s (BoJ) Quarterly Economic Report for April-June, released last week.

The only other sector projected to record expansion is the hotel and restaurants sector which benefited from the diversions of visitors to Jamaica from Mexico due to the outbreak of the H1N1 virus there, as well as the advertising and promotional activities of the Ministry of Tourism. In this context total stopover arrivals are expected to grow by 1.5 percent.

Overall, growth in hotels and restaurants was estimated to be above the average expansion of 1.9 percent over the last eight quarters. The BoJ also reported that stability has returned to the foreign exchange market, enhanced by a lowering of the demand for net foreign currency to facilitate current account transactions.

Source: CaribbeanNewsDigital