Jamaica’s cruise sector is operating at a structural deficit of 28.4 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels, with 438,000 passengers missing from its ports, whilst the Caribbean as a whole is enjoying a historic boom and the Bahamas has nearly doubled its pre-pandemic cruise arrivals, Opposition Spokesperson on Tourism and Linkages Andrea Purkiss revealed during her maiden sectoral contribution in Parliament on Tuesday.

“Based on a conservative estimate of just USD 10 per guest, the Government’s failure to reclaim Jamaica’s pre-pandemic cruise market share has cost tourism practitioners in excess of USD 30 million, equivalent to J$4.5 billion in lost economic activity.” MP Purkiss presented a stark regional comparison. In 2019, Jamaica welcomed 1,544,233 cruise passengers. By the end of 2025 that figure had fallen to 1,106,361. Over the same period, according to the State of the Global Cruise Industry Report, global cruise volume reached an all-time high of 37.2 million passengers, a 25.2 per cent expansion above 2019. The Caribbean captured 44 per cent of all global cruise traffic. Antigua recorded a 9.9 per cent increase after completing a new terminal. The Bahamas grew from 5.4 million arrivals in 2019 to 10.6 million in 2025, a surge of 96.2 per cent.

“The Bahamas grew by nearly one hundred per cent. Jamaica shrank by twenty-eight per cent. This is not a regional problem. It is a local management failure. When 438,000 passengers fail to arrive, it is not the foreign hotel owner who bleeds. It is our JUTA and JCAL drivers sitting in empty car parks. It is our craft vendors in Ocho Rios and Falmouth going days without a single sale. The Minister has not once explained this to Parliament or to those workers,” revealed the Opposition Spokesperson on Tourism and Linkages

Purkiss called on the Minister of Tourism to provide Parliament with a detailed account of what specific interventions have been made to arrest Jamaica’s decline in cruise arrivals, what infrastructure investments are planned to make Jamaican ports competitive with regional counterparts, and what the Government’s measurable targets are for restoring and growing the cruise sector