WHY IT RATES: The island of Jamaica continues to be a favorite vacation spot for travelers headed to the Caribbean. -Codie Liermann, Associate Editor
Jamaica's tourism sector is experiencing an unprecedented start to the year with record-breaking arrival figures and earnings. In just nine weeks since the beginning of 2019, Jamaica has become the first Caribbean destination to welcome one million visitors during the period, generating foreign exchange earnings of approximately $800 million.
"Jamaica continues to make an aggressive push in transforming the way we market the destination, and we have been seeing the dividends," said Donovan White, Jamaica's Director of Tourism.
"While the March numbers are still preliminary, we are pleased to have achieved this milestone so early in 2019. A big thanks to our various travel partners who have been selling Jamaica and helping us sustain this positive growth."
The destination started the year on a high copping a number of notable industry awards. Most recently as the #14 Best Destination of the World and #1 Best Destination in the Caribbean, by 2019 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice awards.
Additionally, Negril's Seven Mile Beach was ranked fifth out of 25 for the Best Beach in the Caribbean and tenth out of 25 in the World.
Earlier in the year, Jamaica captured four gold awards at the Travvy Awards: Best Tourism Board, Best Culinary Destination, Best Wedding Destination and Best Honeymoon Destination.
This was followed by the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Adrian Awards where the Jamaica Tourist Board and Expedia Group Media Solutions won a Silver Adrian Award for the Find Your Vibe Campaign in the Digital Marketing/Website User Experience category. Jamaica also won the Bronze Adrian for Integrated Marketing for Join Me in Jamaica.
At the Caribbean & North America edition of the World Travel Awards, Jamaica took home a total of 24 awards. Among the awards received by the Jamaica Tourist Board: Leading Caribbean Destination, Leading Caribbean Cruise Destination and for the 13th year in a row, the Caribbean's Leading Tourist Board.
In March, during ITB Berlin, the awards continued to pour in when the Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA) selected Jamaica as Destination of the Year.
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