The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) no longer advises Americans to avoid travel to Jamaica or Morocco because of the covid-19 threat.
Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s Tourism Minister, said the new travel advisory will help further boost tourism.
“A Level 1 travel advisory is amongst the best news the tourism industry can hope for,” said Minister Bartlett. “This reduced designation is a testament to the work of our government and the Jamaican people as well as a hopeful incentive to keep our tourism recovery moving forward.”
Bartlett also forecasted that the sector will improve significantly by 2023.
“In 2021, Jamaica welcomed more than 1.5 million visitor arrivals to our shores. These visitors’ on-island spend contributed over USD $2.095 billion into our country’s economy, positively impacting local businesses and tourism stakeholders,” said Minister Bartlett.
“For 2022, the outlook for the tourism sector remains positive with projections for approximately 2.45 to 2.5 million visitor arrivals and a total visitor spend of about USD $2.9 billion.”
Regarding Morocco, the CDC has also issued a level 1 health alert indicating that the country has a low level of COVID -19.
As cases of the virus decline worldwide, an additional 25 countries and territories have been placed in lower-risk categories.
South Africa and the Dominican Republic, which had previously reported high levels of covid-19, have now been placed at level 2, indicating moderate coronavirus risk.
For the second week in a row, no new countries were placed in the highest risk classification.
Nearly 100 destinations are in the level 4 category, including the United Kingdom, Greece, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Hong Kong. A month ago, more than 130 destinations were at the highest level.
This suggests that more destinations could be upgraded to better categories over the weeks to come.