Jamaica government has approved a new regime that will allow Chinese nationals to visit Jamaica as tourists for up to 30 days without a visa.
Citizens of China will now be able to enter Jamaica without a visa.
Speaking at the
Jamaica House Post Cabinet press briefing on Wednesday, Minister of Information, Sandrea Falconer of Jamaica said that government has approved a new regime that will allow Chinese nationals to visit Jamaica as tourists for up to 30 days without a visa.
Falconer said that it has been difficult to achieve substantial growth in arrivals from China as many Chinese citizens have had to travel great distances to obtain a visa from the Jamaican Embassy in Beijing.
“This administration recognises Chinese potential for growth as a tourism market in Jamaica, but also recognises the difficulties entailed in developing it,” she said.
According to the Minister, China is now the largest spender globally in international tourism.
She added that the government has been making concerted efforts to develop new markets in the tourism industry by relaxing its visa requirements for several countries in Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe.
Falconer said these efforts have been successful thus far producing double digit performance in a short period of time.
Visa requirements have already been relaxed for Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Ukraine and the Czech Republic among others.