Donald Dawson, interim director of tourism.

Tourism has earned US$1.4 billion for the period January to September 2006, or 24.6 per cent above the comparative nine-month period last year, the Jamaica Tourist Board said Thursday, but cautioned the results were preliminary.

The JTB also said stopover arrivals grew by 17.2 per cent to reach 1.3 million, exceeding its target by 6.4 per cent.

Growth in cruise passenger visits

Describing the growth in cruise passenger visits as "robust", the tourism agency said there was a 15 per cent increase in cruise arrivals whose numbers climbed to 950,329 passengers.

"The destination continues to experience strong visitor arrivals with most months showing double digit increases," said the JTB in a release on the sector's performance, which was boosted in July by more than 180,000 arrivals, the highest ever in any one month.

Impressive figures

"These impressive figures are due to a number of factors such as new room inventory, increased air lift, the hard work of our partners in the marketplace and aggressive promotional initiatives, including sales blitzes and heightened public relations activities implemented by the JTB in collaboration with the private sector," said interim Director of Tourism, Donald Dawson.