The travel insurance component, of the Jamaica Cares COVID-19 traveler protection and emergency services programme, remains incomplete.

The news comes weeks after Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett announced its establishment.

Director of Tourism Donovan White has disclosed that the travel insurance component of Jamaica Cares remains “in development”.

Jamaica Cares is a ground-breaking traveler protection and emergency services programme, providing visitors access to first-of-its kind traveler protection and emergency medical and crisis response services for events up to and including natural disasters. The programme is a partnership coordinated and administered by the Global Tourism Resilience Crisis Management Centre with support from the Global Travel and Tourism Resilience Council, Global Rescue and leading international and national insurance companies.

Travel insurance component not launched yet

White said the travel insurance component has not yet been launched.

According to the director of tourism, “when the insurance and logistics programme starts up, we anticipate it will be mandatory”.

He added that more information about this will be provided shortly.

Discussing the island’s COVID-19 response plan, Jamaica Cares on Yahoo Finance yesterday, Bartlett pointed out that Jamaica has reinvented international tourism to successfully allow the resumption of travel with Jamaica Cares being at the forefront of those efforts.

“Jamaica Cares truly galvanises our tourism COVID response. We are nimble and resilient. We have paired a comprehensive destination wide approach with a laser like focus, committed to delivering the highest level of health for visitors, tourism workers, and local communities,” Bartlett emphasised.

Jamaica has been among the handful of Caribbean countries to host significant visitors’ numbers since the pandemic’s outbreak. During the first two weeks after the resumption of tourism on June 15, Jamaica welcomed 7,000 visitors, which was an encouraging sign.

In the summer months, there was a spike in arrivals for July and August with Jamaica welcoming some 18,000 visitors over the two-month period. While those numbers are far short of historic norms, White reported that arrivals continued to increase from October through December when the country welcomed 90,000 visitors.

Tourism figures in 2021 encouraging so far

According to White, January remains encouraging with 43,800 visitors and just over 50,000 visitors in February, which is very positive and while also mitigating the spread of the coronavirus. Jamaica has continued to monitor and update its COVID-19 protocols, procedures and resources, noting that, “we have significantly expanded [COVID-19] testing capacity to bring the island into readiness with testing requirements for international travelers”.

The Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Health and Wellness have established mobile testing facilities within Jamaica’s Resilient Corridors  and more than 40 hotels and resorts are providing COVID-19 testing on-property for their guests.

Although Jamaica recently reported a local COVID-19 infection spike, the country this week launched a mass vaccination program. Additionally, the infection rate increase has had minimal impact on travelers within the Resilient Corridors.

White added that all of the major hotels have made provisions for quarantining rooms on their properties, pointing out that, “the Resilient Corridors have allowed us to ensure we can monitor and maintain the movements of visitors to the country within the corridor, where they go and when they go. And if there are cases, we can track and trace.