Most Jamaica tourism jobs restored after Hurricane Melissa, Bartlett says
Key Points(5)
- Most of the tourism jobs affected by Hurricane Melissa have been restored as Jamaica’s tourism sector continues its recovery, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says.
- Bartlett said an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 tourism workers were affected after the Category 5 hurricane struck Jamaica on October 28, 2025, damaging hotels and attractions and taking thousands of rooms out of service.
- Speaking during an interview with the Jamaica Information Service on Thursday, Bartlett said most workers have since returned to their jobs, while additional employment is expected to be restored as more hotels reopen.
- “There are about 11,000 rooms that are to come back on stream… and if we work at one-to-one, that’s about 11,000 workers that are now to come back,” he said.
- Bartlett said hotels directly employ approximately 60,000 people, with thousands more working in attractions and other tourism-related businesses.
Most of the tourism jobs affected by Hurricane Melissa have been restored as Jamaica’s tourism sector continues its recovery, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says.
Bartlett said an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 tourism workers were affected after the Category 5 hurricane struck Jamaica on October 28, 2025, damaging hotels and attractions and taking thousands of rooms out of service.
Speaking during an interview with the Jamaica Information Service on Thursday, Bartlett said most workers have since returned to their jobs, while additional employment is expected to be restored as more hotels reopen.
“There are about 11,000 rooms that are to come back on stream… and if we work at one-to-one, that’s about 11,000 workers that are now to come back,” he said.
Bartlett said hotels directly employ approximately 60,000 people, with thousands more working in attractions and other tourism-related businesses.
Approximately 15,000 hotel rooms were initially taken out of service following Melissa. Bartlett said about 6,000 have since reopened, leaving roughly 9,000 still to return to the island’s tourism inventory.
He expects those remaining rooms to be restored by the end of the first quarter of 2027.
Jamaica is expected to enter the 2026/27 winter tourist season, which begins December 15, with about 80 percent of its accommodation capacity restored.
“Currently, our capacity for accommodation, formal accommodation, is 70 percent… and we will get to 80 percent by December,” Bartlett said.
The remaining capacity is expected to return between January and April 2027.
Despite the reduction in available hotel rooms, Bartlett said visitor arrivals are currently running at about 80 percent of last year’s level, with villas, apartments and private homes, including Airbnb properties, helping to absorb demand.
“Airbnb has done the filling in, because most of those people have gone to the villas, apartments, and private homes,” he said.
Bartlett said the broader economic impact of the tourism recovery should become clearer by the end of the first quarter of 2027 as additional hotel rooms return to service and tourism-related economic activity increases.
He said the sector remains positioned for continued growth as accommodation capacity and employment recover from the hurricane.
