Mexico and Jamaica signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on 16 January that aims to make travel between the destinations easier and more frequent thanks to a multi-destination marketing arrangement.

Edmund Bartlett says, newly-appointed Secretary General of the UNWTO, Zurab Pololikashvili, has pledged his full support for the establishment of the first Global Tourism Resilience Centre in Jamaica.

Jamaica closed out its 2017 tourism year, shattering all previous records for the fast-growing industry.

International tourist arrivals grew by a remarkable 7 percent in 2017 to reach a total of 1,322 million, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer.

Cuba's tourism industry currently offers 68,000 hotel rooms, and the plan calls for raising that figure to 103,000. Another 21,000 rooms are available at private homes that take in tourists.

The Cayman Islands is seeing significant growth in tourist arrivals from Canada, with visitation up 6.37 percent in 2017.