By Ayanna Kirton, Staff reporterTOURISM REMAINS Jamaica's leading source of foreign exchange, but only by a whisker.
The rapid expansion in foreign exchange remittances has brought those inflows nearly on the same level as the income from tourism. But the slower growing tourism income is still ahead.
Jamaicans living abroad sent home approximately US$1.15 billion in remittances last year. According to the Bank of Jamaica, however, in 2002, estimated tourism earnings totalled US$1.18 billion.
REMITTANCE
From January to March this year, total remittance inflows amounted to approximately US$302 million. Tourism earnings for the same period amounted to US$332.3 million.
Industry sources reveal that remittance inflows should grow as much as 25 per cent by the end of this year. Given the healthy but slower growth in tourism revenues, this would be sufficient to make remittances Jamaica's top foreign exchange earner.
"When compared with tourism earnings, the growth rate of remittance inflows is much more impressive," said one source, who chose not to be identified.
The remittance company executive said interest in remittance inflows into Jamaica stems from the less than satisfactory performance of the country's major industries in recent years.
"Remittances have played a part in the Jamaican economy for decades but this is now more obvious than ever before, because the local economy is not thriving," he said. He attributed the upsurge in remittance inflows to the scale of outward migration, in turn resulting from a scarcity of local economic opportunities.
TRI-STATE AREA
He said 70 per cent of Jamaican migrants to the United States reside in the New York tri-state area, and are the most frequent users of remittance services compared with Jamaicans residing in other parts of the US.
The frequency of the use of the service did not automatically translate to more dollars being sent home from that area though. Other states such as Texas and Illinois see Jamaicans sending larger sums of money home, though the numbers of Jamaican migrants residing in these areas are considerably fewer than New York.
This is due to the lack of disposable income available to Jamaican migrants, who are predominantly low income earners, coupled with the cost of living in New York, compared with other US states, the remittance expert said.
